Which to use
“foules” and “foulon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,599
- “foules” frequency rank
- #40,772
- “foulon” frequency rank
- 54371
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foules | foulon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foule. | Artisan qui foule, qui apprête les draps et autres étoffes de laine. |
Where the eye mixes foules and foulon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. foules and foulon follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: foules vs foulon
A purely visual mix-up. foules (\ful\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foules is recorded at frequency rank #13,599, classified as anoun, pronounced \ful\. 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 54371, this pair ranks #134,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foules vs foulon
Shared letters: flou. Private to "foules": es. Private to "foulon": n.
"foules" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "foulon" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foules" for "foulon" ever safe?
Frequency check: "foules" vs "foulon" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foules" 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 #134,506 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foules" 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 #134,506 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.