Which to use
“fouillée” and “fouiller” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,848
- “fouillée” frequency rank
- #11,590
- “fouiller” frequency rank
- 48438
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouillée | fouiller |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de fouiller. | Pratiquer un creux dans la terre. |
Same sound, different letters: fouillée vs fouiller
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. fouillée (CVVVCCVV) and fouiller (CVVVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Homophone desk: fouillée vs fouiller
This is the hard kind. fouillée and fouiller are pronounced identically (\fu.je\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48438, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouillée is recorded at frequency rank #36,848, classified as averb, pronounced \fu.je\. fouiller is at rank #11,590, tagged as averb, pronounced \fu.je\.
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 48438, this pair ranks #178,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fouillée vs fouiller
Shared letters: efilou. Private to "fouillée": é. Private to "fouiller": r.
"fouillée" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVV · "fouiller" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fouiller ← ffouiller · foiuller · fouilelr · fouiler · fouillerr · fouillre · fouliler · fuoiller
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fouillée" and "fouiller" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fouillée" or "fouiller"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "fouillée" / "fouiller". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouillée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouiller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouillée" and "fouiller" 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 #178,941 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.