Which to use
“filon” and “filou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,975
- “filon” frequency rank
- #43,438
- “filou” frequency rank
- 68413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filon | filou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gisement étendu d’une matière, de forme allongée, permettant son identification. | (Louisiane) Voleur agissant par ruse, tricheur au jeu, personne qui abuse de la confiance. |
Where the eye mixes filon and filou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: filon vs filou
A purely visual mix-up. filon (\fi.lɔ̃\) 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 a single letter - n in “filon” becomes u in “filou”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filon is recorded at frequency rank #24,975, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.lɔ̃\. 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 68413, this pair ranks #59,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of filon vs filou
Shared letters: filo. Private to "filon": n. Private to "filou": u.
"filon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "filou" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "filon" for "filou" ever safe?
Frequency check: "filon" vs "filou" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "filon" and "filou" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "filon" 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 #59,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filon" 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 #59,297 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.