Which to use
“fioul” and “flour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,065
- “fioul” frequency rank
- #48,533
- “flour” frequency rank
- 75598
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fioul | flour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Distillat lourd du pétrole, utilisé comme combustible pour des installations de chauffage domestiques ou industrielles, comme carburant pour les gros moteurs diesels. | Farine. |
Where the eye mixes fioul and flour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fioul vs flour
A purely visual mix-up. fioul (\fjul\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fioul is recorded at frequency rank #27,065, classified as anoun, pronounced \fjul\. 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 75598, this pair ranks #33,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fioul vs flour
Shared letters: flou. Private to "fioul": i. Private to "flour": r.
"fioul" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "flour" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fioul" and "flour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fioul" or "flour" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fioul" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "flour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fioul" and "flour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filou vs flour". 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 #33,593 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.