Which to use
“foulon” and “frelon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,772
- “foulon” frequency rank
- #39,307
- “frelon” frequency rank
- 80079
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foulon | frelon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Artisan qui foule, qui apprête les draps et autres étoffes de laine. | Sorte de grosse guêpe, de nom scientifique Vespa crabro. |
Where the eye mixes foulon and frelon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. foulon (CVVCVC) and frelon (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between foulon and frelon
A purely visual mix-up. foulon (\fu.lɔ̃\) and frelon (\fʁə.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 80079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foulon is recorded at frequency rank #40,772, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.lɔ̃\. frelon is at rank #39,307, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁə.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 80079, this pair ranks #21,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foulon vs frelon
Shared letters: flno. Private to "foulon": u. Private to "frelon": er.
"foulon" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "frelon" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foulon" and "frelon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "foulon" or "frelon" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foulon" and "frelon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "foulon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frelon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foulon" and "frelon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frelon vs frelons". 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 #21,776 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.