famillevsfaucilleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“famille” and “faucille” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#244
“famille” frequency rank
#38,800
“faucille” frequency rank
39044
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature famille faucille
Definition Ensemble formé par les parents et leurs enfants. Outil qui consiste en une lame d’acier courbée en demi-cercle, dentelée et fixée à une poignée de bois et qui sert à couper l'herbe, les céréales.

Where the eye mixes famille and faucille

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. famille runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against faucille's 8 (CVVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
famille
8 ch
faucille

Visual trap between famille and faucille

A purely visual mix-up. famille (\fa.mij\) and faucille (\fɔ.sij\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39044, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

famille is recorded at frequency rank #244, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.mij\. faucille is at rank #38,800, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.sij\.

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 39044, this pair ranks #250,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of famille vs faucille

Shared letters: aefil. Private to "famille": m. Private to "faucille": cu.

"famille" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "faucille" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • famille ← afmille · faimlle · famile · familel · famlile · fammille · ffamille · fmaille
  • faucille ← afucille · facuille · fauccille · faucile · faucilel · fauclile · fauiclle · ffaucille

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "famille" and "faucille" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fa.mij\ versus \fɔ.sij\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "famille" or "faucille"?
"famille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #244 in our French list, against #38,800 for "faucille". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "famille" and "faucille" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "famille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "faucille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "famille" and "faucille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faucille vs faufile". 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 #250,918 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list