Which to use
“fuse” is a verb and “fuseau” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,778
- “fuse” frequency rank
- #27,818
- “fuseau” frequency rank
- 74596
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fuse | fuseau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe fuser. | Petite tige de bois renflée en son milieu, pointu à un bout et arrondi à l’autre et dont on se sert pour filer à la quenouille et tordre le fil, afin de le rouler à mesure qu’il se forme. |
Where the eye mixes fuse and fuseau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fuse runs 4 letters (CVCV) against fuseau's 6 (CVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fuse and fuseau
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fuse is \fyz\ while fuseau is \fy.zo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fuse” sits inside “fuseau”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fuse is recorded at frequency rank #46,778, classified as averb, pronounced \fyz\. fuseau is at rank #27,818, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fy.zo\.
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 74596, this pair ranks #36,647 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fuse vs fuseau
Shared letters: efsu. Private to "fuse": -. Private to "fuseau": a.
"fuse" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "fuseau" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fuse" and "fuseau" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fuse" vs "fuseau" - 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 "fuse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fuseau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #36,647 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fuse" and "fuseau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fuse". 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 #36,647 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.