Which to use
“fill” is an adverb and “fille” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,807
- “fill” frequency rank
- #312
- “fille” frequency rank
- 39119
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fill | fille |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aussitôt, immédiatement, sitôt, tout de suite, d’abord. | Enfant de genre féminin, par opposition à garçon ; aussi appelée fillette ou petite fille. |
Where the eye mixes fill and fille
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fill runs 4 letters (CVCC) against fille's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fill with fille
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fill is \ˈfiɫ\ while fille is \fij\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fill” sits inside “fille”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fill is recorded at frequency rank #38,807, classified as anadv, pronounced \ˈfiɫ\. fille is at rank #312, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fij\.
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 39119, this pair ranks #250,370 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fill vs fille
Shared letters: fil. Private to "fill": -. Private to "fille": e.
"fill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fille" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fill" and "fille" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "fill" or "fille"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,370 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fill" and "fille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fill". 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 #250,370 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.