Which to use
“poils” is a noun and “poilue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,692
- “poils” frequency rank
- #39,461
- “poilue” frequency rank
- 45153
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poils | poilue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de poil. | Féminin singulier de poilu. |
Where the eye mixes poils and poilue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. poils runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against poilue's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between poils and poilue
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poils is \pwal\ while poilue is \pwa.ly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poils is recorded at frequency rank #5,692, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwal\. poilue is at rank #39,461, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pwa.ly\.
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 45153, this pair ranks #204,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poils vs poilue
Shared letters: ilop. Private to "poils": s. Private to "poilue": eu.
"poils" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "poilue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "poils" and "poilue" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "poils" vs "poilue" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poilue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #204,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poils" and "poilue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilue vs poilues". 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 #204,983 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.