ficvsfillWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fic is a noun, fill is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fic” is a noun and “fill” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,762
“fic” frequency rank
#38,807
“fill” frequency rank
85569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fic fill
Definition Verrue à pédoncule étroit ressemblant à une figue. Aussitôt, immédiatement, sitôt, tout de suite, d’abord.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fic and fill apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
fic
4 ch
fill

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fic is \fik\ while fill is \ˈfiɫ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fic is recorded at frequency rank #46,762, classified as anoun, pronounced \fik\. fill is at rank #38,807, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ˈfiɫ\.

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 85569, this pair ranks #11,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fic vs fill

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fic": c. Private to "fill": l.

"fic" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fillffill · flil · ifll

Frequency comparison

fic#46,762
fill#38,807

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fic" and "fill" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fic" is a noun and "fill" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fic" or "fill"?
"fill" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,807 in our French list, against #46,762 for "fic". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fic vs fill

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “fic”; for an adverb, it's “fill”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fic” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list