Which to use
“houillères” and “houilles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,658
- “houillères” frequency rank
- #42,383
- “houilles” frequency rank
- 88041
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | houillères | houilles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de houillère. | Pluriel de houille. |
Where the eye mixes houillères and houilles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. houillères runs 10 letters (CVVVCCVCVC) against houilles's 8 (CVVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: houillères vs houilles
A purely visual mix-up. houillères (^((h aspiré))\u.jɛʁ\) and houilles (^((h aspiré))\uj\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88041, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
houillères is recorded at frequency rank #45,658, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u.jɛʁ\. houilles is at rank #42,383, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\uj\.
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 88041, this pair ranks #7,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of houillères vs houilles
Shared letters: ehilosu. Private to "houillères": rè. Private to "houilles": -.
"houillères" · 10 letters · shape CVVVCCVCVC · "houilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- houilles ← hhouilles · hoiulles · houilels · houiles · houilless · houillse · houliles · huoilles
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "houillères" for "houilles" ever safe?
Frequency check: "houillères" vs "houilles" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "houillères" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "houillères" and "houilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "houiller vs houillères". 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 #7,501 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.