Which to use
“fillon” and “filou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,004
- “fillon” frequency rank
- #43,438
- “filou” frequency rank
- 46442
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fillon | filou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petit coquillage comestible, appartenant au genre telline. | (Louisiane) Voleur agissant par ruse, tricheur au jeu, personne qui abuse de la confiance. |
Where the eye mixes fillon and filou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fillon runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against filou's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fillon with filou
A purely visual mix-up. fillon (\fi.jɔ̃\) and filou (\fi.lu\) 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 46442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fillon is recorded at frequency rank #3,004, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.jɔ̃\. filou is at rank #43,438, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fi.lu\.
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 46442, this pair ranks #194,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fillon vs filou
Shared letters: filo. Private to "fillon": n. Private to "filou": u.
"fillon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "filou" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fillon" and "filou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fillon" vs "filou" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fillon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "filou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #194,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fillon" and "filou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs filou". 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 #194,903 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.