pilléevspilotéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,275
“pillée” frequency rank
#27,568
“pilotée” frequency rank
76843
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pillée pilotée
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de piller. Participe passé féminin singulier de piloter.

Where the eye mixes pillée and pilotée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pillée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against pilotée's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pillée
7 ch
pilotée

Visual trap between pillée and pilotée

A purely visual mix-up. pillée (\pi.je\) and pilotée (\pi.lɔ.te\) 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 76843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pillée is recorded at frequency rank #49,275, classified as averb, pronounced \pi.je\. pilotée is at rank #27,568, tagged as averb, pronounced \pi.lɔ.te\.

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 76843, this pair ranks #30,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pillée vs pilotée

Shared letters: eilpé. Private to "pillée": -. Private to "pilotée": ot.

"pillée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "pilotée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pillée" and "pilotée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pi.je\ versus \pi.lɔ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pillée" or "pilotée"?
"pilotée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,568 in our French list, against #49,275 for "pillée". 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 "pillée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pilotée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pillée" and "pilotée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillée vs Pirée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,039 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