fusilvsfutsalTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,661
“fusil” frequency rank
#38,305
“futsal” frequency rank
43966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fusil futsal
Definition Petite pièce d’acier avec laquelle on battait un silex pour en tirer du feu. Variante du football, qui se joue en salle, par équipe de cinq avec un ballon plus petit et plus lourd que le ballon utilisé par les équipes de 11 joueurs.

Where the eye mixes fusil and futsal

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

5 ch
fusil
6 ch
futsal

Look-alike desk: fusil vs futsal

A purely visual mix-up. fusil (\fy.zi\) and futsal (\fut.sal\) 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 43966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fusil is recorded at frequency rank #5,661, classified as anoun, pronounced \fy.zi\. futsal is at rank #38,305, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fut.sal\.

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 43966, this pair ranks #214,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fusil vs futsal

Shared letters: flsu. Private to "fusil": i. Private to "futsal": at.

"fusil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "futsal" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fusil ← ffusil · fsuil · fuisl · fusill · fusli · fussil · ufsil
  • futsal ← ffutsal · ftusal · fustal · futasl · futsall · futsla · futssal · futtsal

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fusil" for "futsal" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fy.zi\ versus \fut.sal\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fusil" or "futsal"?
"fusil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,661 in our French list, against #38,305 for "futsal". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "fusil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "futsal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #214,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fusil" and "futsal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fûts vs futsal". 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 #214,034 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