gorillevsgrilléeConfusable pair

Quick tell: gorille is a noun, grillée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gorille” is a noun and “grillée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,986
“gorille” frequency rank
#28,975
“grillée” frequency rank
53961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gorille grillée
Definition Grand singe de la famille des hominidés dont la forme se rapproche le plus de celle de l’être humain et qu’on trouve dans plusieurs pays d’Afrique. Féminin singulier de grillé.

Where the eye mixes gorille and grillée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. gorille (CVCVCCV) and grillée (CCVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
gorille
7 ch
grillée

Visual trap between gorille and grillée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gorille is \ɡɔ.ʁij\ while grillée is \ɡʁi.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gorille is recorded at frequency rank #24,986, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔ.ʁij\. grillée is at rank #28,975, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁi.je\.

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 53961, this pair ranks #137,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gorille vs grillée

Shared letters: egilr. Private to "gorille": o. Private to "grillée": é.

"gorille" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "grillée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gorille ← ggorille · goirlle · gorile · gorilel · gorlile · gorrille · groille · ogrille

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gorille" and "grillée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gorille" is a noun and "grillée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gorille" or "grillée"?
"gorille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,986 in our French list, against #28,975 for "grillée". 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 "gorille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grillée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gorille" and "grillée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grillée vs grillon". 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 #137,276 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