Which to use
“pilules” and “piqûres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,718
- “pilules” frequency rank
- #21,112
- “piqûres” frequency rank
- 36830
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pilules | piqûres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pilule. | Pluriel de piqûre. |
Where the eye mixes pilules and piqûres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pilules and piqûres follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pilules with piqûres
A purely visual mix-up. pilules (\pi.lyl\) and piqûres (\pi.kyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36830, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pilules is recorded at frequency rank #15,718, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.lyl\. piqûres is at rank #21,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.kyʁ\.
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 36830, this pair ranks #266,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pilules vs piqûres
Shared letters: eips. Private to "pilules": lu. Private to "piqûres": qrû.
"pilules" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "piqûres" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pilules ← iplules · pillues · pillules · piluels · piluless · pilulles · pilulse · piulles
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pilules" and "piqûres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pilules" or "piqûres"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pilules" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piqûres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #266,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pilules" and "piqûres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs piqûres". 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 #266,846 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.