Which to use
“failli” is an adjective and “fill” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,669
- “failli” frequency rank
- #38,807
- “fill” frequency rank
- 43476
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | failli | fill |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Se dit d'un chevron, d'une bande, d'une fasce, d'un pal, d'un meuble quelconque, dont la longueur ou la largeur se trouve interrompue par un vide parfaitement carré ou le séparant en deux. | Aussitôt, immédiatement, sitôt, tout de suite, d’abord. |
Where the eye mixes failli and fill
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between failli and fill
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: failli is \fa.ji\ while fill is \ˈfiɫ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43476, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
failli is recorded at frequency rank #4,669, classified as anadj, pronounced \fa.ji\. fill is at rank #38,807, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ˈfiɫ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 43476, this pair ranks #217,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of failli vs fill
Shared letters: fil. Private to "failli": a. Private to "fill": -.
"failli" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "fill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "failli" for "fill" ever safe?
Which is more common, "failli" or "fill"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "failli" and "fill" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "failli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fill" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #217,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "failli" and "fill" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fill". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #217,790 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.