Which to use
“poil” is a noun and “poli” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,432
- “poil” frequency rank
- #9,059
- “poli” frequency rank
- 13491
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poil | poli |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Filet délié qui croît sur la peau de la plupart des mammifères et à certains endroits du corps humain. | Lisse, luisant. |
Where the eye mixes poil and poli
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. poil (CVVC) and poli (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses poil with poli
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poil is \pwal\ while poli is \po.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (il ↔ li) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poil is recorded at frequency rank #4,432, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwal\. poli is at rank #9,059, tagged as anadj, pronounced \po.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 13491, this pair ranks #400,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of poil vs poli
Shared letters: ilop. Private to "poil": -. Private to "poli": -.
"poil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "poli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poil" for "poli" ever safe?
Which is more common, "poil" or "poli"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "poil" and "poli" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poil" and "poli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palin vs poli". 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 #400,812 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.