poésiesvspouliesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#18,833
“poésies” frequency rank
#40,932
“poulies” frequency rank
59765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poésies poulies
Definition Pluriel de poésie. Pluriel de poulie.

Where the eye mixes poésies and poulies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poésies and poulies follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
poésies
7 ch
poulies

Look-alike desk: poésies vs poulies

A purely visual mix-up. poésies (\pɔ.e.zi\) and poulies (\pu.li\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poésies is recorded at frequency rank #18,833, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.e.zi\. poulies is at rank #40,932, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.li\.

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 59765, this pair ranks #101,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of poésies vs poulies

Shared letters: eiops. Private to "poésies": é. Private to "poulies": lu.

"poésies" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "poulies" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pouliesopulies · poluies · pouiles · pouleis · pouliess · poulise · poullies · ppoulies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poésies" for "poulies" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɔ.e.zi\ versus \pu.li\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "poésies" or "poulies" show up more?
"poésies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,833 in our French list, against #40,932 for "poulies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "poésies" and "poulies" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poésies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poulies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poésies" and "poulies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poulies vs pouliot". 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 #101,313 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