manillevsmanivelleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,667
“manille” frequency rank
#31,593
“manivelle” frequency rank
56260
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manille manivelle
Definition Jeu de cartes où le dix est la plus forte carte. Pièce de fer ou de bois qui se replie souvent deux fois à angle droit et qui, placée à l’extrémité d’un axe ou d’un essieu, sert à faire tourner celui-ci, souvent à la main.

Where the eye mixes manille and manivelle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
manille
9 ch
manivelle

Visual trap between manille and manivelle

A purely visual mix-up. manille (\ma.nij\) and manivelle (\ma.ni.vɛl\) 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 56260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manille is recorded at frequency rank #24,667, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.nij\. manivelle is at rank #31,593, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.ni.vɛl\.

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 56260, this pair ranks #122,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manille vs manivelle

Shared letters: aeilmn. Private to "manille": -. Private to "manivelle": v.

"manille" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "manivelle" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manilleamnille · mainlle · manile · manilel · manlile · mannille · mmanille · mnaille
  • manivelleamnivelle · mainvelle · manievlle · manivele · manivelel · manivlele · manivvelle · mannivelle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manille" for "manivelle" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ma.nij\ versus \ma.ni.vɛl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manille" or "manivelle"?
"manille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,667 in our French list, against #31,593 for "manivelle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manivelle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manille" and "manivelle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maniable vs manille". 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 #122,214 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