filouvsflourWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“filou” and “flour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,438
“filou” frequency rank
#48,533
“flour” frequency rank
91971
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filou flour
Definition (Louisiane) Voleur agissant par ruse, tricheur au jeu, personne qui abuse de la confiance. Farine.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set filou and flour apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
filou
5 ch
flour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. filou (\fi.lu\) and flour (\ˈflaʊ.ɚ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filou is recorded at frequency rank #43,438, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.lu\. flour is at rank #48,533, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈflaʊ.ɚ\.

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 91971, this pair ranks #3,383 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of filou vs flour

Shared letters: flou. Private to "filou": i. Private to "flour": r.

"filou" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "flour" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filouffilou · fillou · filuo · fliou · iflou
  • flourfflour · fllour · floru · flourr · folur · lfour

Frequency comparison

filou#43,438
flour#48,533

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "filou" and "flour" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fi.lu\ versus \ˈflaʊ.ɚ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "filou" or "flour"?
"filou" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,438 in our French list, against #48,533 for "flour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering filou vs flour

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “filou” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list