fébrilesvsfériésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,545
“fébriles” frequency rank
#13,797
“fériés” frequency rank
62342
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fébriles fériés
Definition Pluriel de fébrile. Masculin pluriel de férié.

Where the eye mixes fébriles and fériés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fébriles runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against fériés's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
fébriles
6 ch
fériés

Look-alike desk: fébriles vs fériés

A purely visual mix-up. fébriles (\fe.bʁil\) and fériés (\fe.ʁje\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fébriles is recorded at frequency rank #48,545, classified as anadj, pronounced \fe.bʁil\. fériés is at rank #13,797, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fe.ʁje\.

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 62342, this pair ranks #87,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fébriles vs fériés

Shared letters: firsé. Private to "fébriles": bel. Private to "fériés": -.

"fébriles" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "fériés" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fébriles" and "fériés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fe.bʁil\ versus \fe.ʁje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fébriles" or "fériés"?
"fériés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,797 in our French list, against #48,545 for "fébriles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fébriles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fériés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fébriles" and "fériés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fébriles vs ferries". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #87,652 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