Which to use
“fouillant” and “fouillent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,360
- “fouillant” frequency rank
- #44,466
- “fouillent” frequency rank
- 73826
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouillant | fouillent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe présent de fouiller. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de fouiller. |
Where the eye mixes fouillant and fouillent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. fouillant and fouillent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: fouillant vs fouillent
A purely visual mix-up. fouillant (\fu.jɑ̃\) and fouillent (\fuj\) 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 - a in “fouillant” becomes e in “fouillent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouillant is recorded at frequency rank #29,360, classified as averb, pronounced \fu.jɑ̃\. fouillent is at rank #44,466, tagged as averb, pronounced \fuj\.
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 73826, this pair ranks #39,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fouillant vs fouillent
Shared letters: filnotu. Private to "fouillant": a. Private to "fouillent": e.
"fouillant" · 9 letters · shape CVVVCCVCC · "fouillent" · 9 letters · shape CVVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fouillant" for "fouillent" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fouillant" vs "fouillent" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouillant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouillent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #39,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouillant" and "fouillent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouillée vs fouillent". 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 #39,146 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.