Which to use
“faucille” and “fouille” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,800
- “faucille” frequency rank
- #11,056
- “fouille” frequency rank
- 49856
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faucille | fouille |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Ouverture que l’on pratique dans la terre pour mettre à découvert ce qui y est enfermé ou pour faire les fondations d’une maison, pour creuser une mine, un canal, etc. |
Where the eye mixes faucille and fouille
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. faucille runs 8 letters (CVVCVCCV) against fouille's 7 (CVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between faucille and fouille
A purely visual mix-up. faucille (\fɔ.sij\) and fouille (\fuj\) 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 49856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faucille is recorded at frequency rank #38,800, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.sij\. fouille is at rank #11,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuj\.
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 49856, this pair ranks #167,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of faucille vs fouille
Shared letters: efilu. Private to "faucille": ac. Private to "fouille": o.
"faucille" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV · "fouille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "faucille" and "fouille" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "faucille" or "fouille"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "faucille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #167,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faucille" and "fouille" 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 #167,344 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.