millièmevsmillierTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,917
“millième” frequency rank
#10,906
“millier” frequency rank
49823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature millième millier
Definition Élément ordinal, correspondant au cardinal mille. Nom de nombre collectif exprimant la quantité de mille.

Where the eye mixes millième and millier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. millième runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against millier's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
millième
7 ch
millier

Why the eye confuses millième with millier

A purely visual mix-up. millième (\mi.ljɛm\) and millier (\mi.lje\) 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 49823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

millième is recorded at frequency rank #38,917, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.ljɛm\. millier is at rank #10,906, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.lje\.

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 49823, this pair ranks #167,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of millième vs millier

Shared letters: eilm. Private to "millième": è. Private to "millier": r.

"millième" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "millier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • millier ← imllier · milier · mililer · milleir · millierr · millire · mlilier · mmillier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "millième" for "millier" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mi.ljɛm\ versus \mi.lje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "millième" or "millier"?
"millier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,906 in our French list, against #38,917 for "millième". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "millième" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "millier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "millième" and "millier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Millie vs millième". 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 #167,602 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