Which to use
“filleul” and “filleule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,609
- “filleul” frequency rank
- #46,170
- “filleule” frequency rank
- 76779
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filleul | filleule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fils spirituel d’un parrain ou d’une marraine; enfant pour lequel une cérémonie de parrainage a eu lieu. | Fille spirituelle d’un parrain ou d’une marraine, jeune fille pour laquelle une cérémonie de parrainage a eu lieu. |
Same sound, different letters: filleul vs filleule
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. filleul runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against filleule's 8 (CVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - filleul / filleule
This is the hard kind. filleul and filleule are pronounced identically (\fi.jœl\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “filleul” sits inside “filleule”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filleul is recorded at frequency rank #30,609, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.jœl\. filleule is at rank #46,170, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fi.jœl\.
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 76779, this pair ranks #30,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of filleul vs filleule
Shared letters: efilu. Private to "filleul": -. Private to "filleule": -.
"filleul" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "filleule" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "filleul" and "filleule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "filleul" or "filleule" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "filleul" / "filleule". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "filleul" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "filleule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filleul" and "filleule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fillette vs filleule". 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 #30,189 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.