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filer

French, verb/fi.le/

filer is a French verb meaning “to spin (a web)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Tordre ensemble plusieurs brins de chanvre, de lin, de soie, de laine, etc., pour qu’ils forment un fil”.

What does filer mean in English?

verb

  1. 1

    to spin (a web)

  2. 2

    to thread through (a crowd)

  3. 3

    to spin a thread (of syrup, or syrup-like substances)

  4. 4

    informalto leave, to get going, to scram, to slip through

  5. 5

    informalto pass, to hand, to give

    Tu pourrais me filer le sel, s'il-te-plaît ?

  6. 6

    to ease a line

  7. 7

    (police) to tail, track

  8. 8

    to season and thicken gumbo with filé powder

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

verb: 1. Tordre ensemble plusieurs brins de chanvre, de lin, de soie, de laine, etc., pour qu’ils forment un fil. 2. Tirer un fil de son corps, en parlant des insectes ou des araignées. 3. Conduire, développer progressivement et avec art. 4. Tirer de l’or, de l’argent en les passant à la filière.

noun: 1. Dispositif de stockage de fichiers.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of filer

  • avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
  • filant gerund participle present
  • ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
  • filé participle past
  • file first-person indicative present
  • files indicative present second-person
  • filons first-person indicative plural
  • filez indicative plural present
  • filent indicative plural present
  • filais first-person imperfect indicative
  • filait imperfect indicative singular
  • filions first-person imperfect indicative
  • filiez imperfect indicative plural
  • filaient imperfect indicative plural
  • filai first-person historic indicative
  • filas historic indicative past
  • fila historic indicative past
  • filâmes first-person historic indicative

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

How do you pronounce filer?

  • /fi.le/
  • \fi.le\
  • [fi.le]

Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.

English words that translate to filer

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is filer in French?

filer appears 8.9 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).