Which to use
“filet” and “five” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,395
- “filet” frequency rank
- #15,146
- “five” frequency rank
- 21541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filet | five |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fil délié, petit fil. | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 5. |
Where the eye mixes filet and five
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses filet with five
A purely visual mix-up. filet (\fi.lɛ\) and five (\ˈfai̯f\) 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 21541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filet is recorded at frequency rank #6,395, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.lɛ\. five is at rank #15,146, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈfai̯f\.
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 21541, this pair ranks #362,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of filet vs five
Shared letters: efi. Private to "filet": lt. Private to "five": v.
"filet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "five" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "filet" and "five" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "filet" or "five" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "filet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "five" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #362,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filet" and "five" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs five". 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 #362,636 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.