Which to use
“filon” and “foulon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,975
- “filon” frequency rank
- #40,772
- “foulon” frequency rank
- 65747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filon | foulon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gisement étendu d’une matière, de forme allongée, permettant son identification. | Artisan qui foule, qui apprête les draps et autres étoffes de laine. |
Where the eye mixes filon and foulon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. filon runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against foulon's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between filon and foulon
A purely visual mix-up. filon (\fi.lɔ̃\) and foulon (\fu.lɔ̃\) 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 65747, 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\. foulon is at rank #40,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu.lɔ̃\.
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 65747, this pair ranks #70,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of filon vs foulon
Shared letters: flno. Private to "filon": i. Private to "foulon": u.
"filon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "foulon" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "filon" and "foulon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "filon" or "foulon"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "filon" and "foulon" 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 "foulon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filon" and "foulon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foulon vs frelon". 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 #70,958 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.