feuilletvsfouillesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,859
“feuillet” frequency rank
#8,712
“fouilles” frequency rank
31571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feuillet fouilles
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. Pluriel de fouille.

Where the eye mixes feuillet and fouilles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. feuillet and fouilles follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
feuillet
8 ch
fouilles

Look-alike desk: feuillet vs fouilles

A purely visual mix-up. feuillet (\fœ.jɛ\) and fouilles (\fuj\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31571, 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\. fouilles is at rank #8,712, 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 31571, this pair ranks #302,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feuillet vs fouilles

Shared letters: efilu. Private to "feuillet": t. Private to "fouilles": os.

"feuillet" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC  ·  "fouilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feuilletefuillet · feiullet · feuilelt · feuilet · feuillett · feuillte · feulilet · ffeuillet
  • fouillesffouilles · foiulles · fouilels · fouiles · fouilless · fouillse · fouliles · fuoilles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feuillet" and "fouilles" 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.
In ordinary French text, does "feuillet" or "fouilles" show up more?
"fouilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,712 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "feuillet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fouilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #302,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feuillet" and "fouilles" 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 #302,962 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