filairevsfilanteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,764
“filaire” frequency rank
#41,290
“filante” frequency rank
82054
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filaire filante
Definition Qui concerne les fils. Féminin singulier de filant.

Where the eye mixes filaire and filante

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. filaire (CVCVVCV) and filante (CVCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
filaire
7 ch
filante

Visual trap between filaire and filante

A purely visual mix-up. filaire (\fi.lɛʁ\) and filante (\fi.lɑ̃t\) 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 82054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filaire is recorded at frequency rank #40,764, classified as anadj, pronounced \fi.lɛʁ\. filante is at rank #41,290, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fi.lɑ̃t\.

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 82054, this pair ranks #17,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of filaire vs filante

Shared letters: aefil. Private to "filaire": r. Private to "filante": nt.

"filaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "filante" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filaire ← ffilaire · fialire · filaier · filairre · filarie · filiare · fillaire · fliaire
  • filante ← ffilante · fialnte · filanet · filannte · filantte · filatne · fillante · filnate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "filaire" for "filante" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fi.lɛʁ\ versus \fi.lɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "filaire" vs "filante" - which ranks higher?
"filaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,764 in our French list, against #41,290 for "filante". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "filaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "filante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "filaire" and "filante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filante vs filmant". 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 #17,528 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