feuilletvsfouilleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,859
“feuillet” frequency rank
#11,056
“fouille” frequency rank
33915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feuillet fouille
Definition Chaque partie d’une feuille de papier qui a été pliée ou coupée en deux, en quatre, en huit, etc., en vue d’y écrire, d’y imprimer ou d’y dessiner. 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 feuillet and fouille

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

8 ch
feuillet
7 ch
fouille

Why the eye confuses feuillet with fouille

A purely visual mix-up. feuillet (\fœ.jɛ\) 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 33915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feuillet is recorded at frequency rank #22,859, classified as anoun, pronounced \fœ.jɛ\. 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 33915, this pair ranks #287,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feuillet vs fouille

Shared letters: efilu. Private to "feuillet": t. Private to "fouille": o.

"feuillet" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC  ·  "fouille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feuillet ← efuillet · feiullet · feuilelt · feuilet · feuillett · feuillte · feulilet · ffeuillet
  • fouille ← ffouille · foiulle · fouile · fouilel · foulile · fuoille · ofuille

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feuillet" and "fouille" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fœ.jɛ\ versus \fuj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "feuillet" vs "fouille" - which ranks higher?
"fouille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,056 in our French list, against #22,859 for "feuillet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "feuillet" 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 #287,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feuillet" and "fouille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feuillet vs fouillent". 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 #287,415 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