Which to use
“fécule” and “foule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,779
- “fécule” frequency rank
- #2,616
- “foule” frequency rank
- 49395
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fécule | foule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poudre blanche à très forte teneur en amidon, qui provient de certaines racines ou de certaines graines. | Action de fouler les draps. On dit plutôt foulage de nos jours. |
Where the eye mixes fécule and foule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fécule runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against foule's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fécule vs foule
A purely visual mix-up. fécule (\fe.kyl\) and foule (\ful\) 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 49395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fécule is recorded at frequency rank #46,779, classified as anoun, pronounced \fe.kyl\. foule is at rank #2,616, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ful\.
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 49395, this pair ranks #171,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fécule vs foule
Shared letters: eflu. Private to "fécule": cé. Private to "foule": o.
"fécule" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "foule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- foule ← ffoule · folue · fouel · foulle · fuole · ofule
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fécule" and "foule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fécule" or "foule" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fécule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fécule" and "foule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fécule vs female". 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 #171,045 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.