fuseauvsfuséeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“fuseau” and “fusée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,818
“fuseau” frequency rank
#9,665
“fusée” frequency rank
37483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fuseau fusée
Definition 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. Quantité de fil qui est contenu sur un fuseau, quand la filasse est filée.

Where the eye mixes fuseau and fusée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fuseau runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against fusée's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fuseau
5 ch
fusée

Look-alike desk: fuseau vs fusée

A purely visual mix-up. fuseau (\fy.zo\) and fusée (\fy.ze\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fuseau is recorded at frequency rank #27,818, classified as anoun, pronounced \fy.zo\. fusée is at rank #9,665, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fy.ze\.

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 37483, this pair ranks #262,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fuseau vs fusée

Shared letters: efsu. Private to "fuseau": a. Private to "fusée": é.

"fuseau" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV  ·  "fusée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fuseau ← ffuseau · fsueau · fuesau · fusaeu · fuseua · fusseau · ufseau

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fuseau" and "fusée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fy.zo\ versus \fy.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fuseau" vs "fusée" - which ranks higher?
"fusée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,665 in our French list, against #27,818 for "fuseau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fuseau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fusée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fuseau" and "fusée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fuse vs fuseau". 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 #262,189 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list