Which to use
“houle” and “houx” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,236
- “houle” frequency rank
- #45,659
- “houx” frequency rank
- 69895
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | houle | houx |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mouvement d’ondulation que la mer conserve après une tempête, mais qui l’agite sans bruit et sans former d’écume. | Arbre toujours vert, de la famille des aquifoliacées, dont les feuilles sont luisantes et armées de piquants et dont le fruit est une baie d’un très beau rouge. |
Where the eye mixes houle and houx
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. houle runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against houx's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between houle and houx
A purely visual mix-up. houle (^((h aspiré))\ul\) and houx (^((h aspiré))\u\) 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 69895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
houle is recorded at frequency rank #24,236, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ul\. houx is at rank #45,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u\.
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 69895, this pair ranks #53,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of houle vs houx
Shared letters: hou. Private to "houle": el. Private to "houx": x.
"houle" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "houx" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "houle" and "houx" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "houle" vs "houx" - which ranks higher?
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 "houle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houx" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "houle" and "houx" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Houda vs houx". 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 #53,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.