Which to use
“poilu” and “poilus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,651
- “poilu” frequency rank
- #28,295
- “poilus” frequency rank
- 50946
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poilu | poilus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est velu, couvert de poils. | Masculin pluriel de poilu. |
Same sound, different letters: poilu vs poilus
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. poilu runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against poilus's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - poilu / poilus
This is the hard kind. poilu and poilus are pronounced identically (\pwa.ly\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “poilu” sits inside “poilus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poilu is recorded at frequency rank #22,651, classified as anadj, pronounced \pwa.ly\. poilus is at rank #28,295, 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 50946, this pair ranks #158,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poilu vs poilus
Shared letters: ilopu. Private to "poilu": -. Private to "poilus": s.
"poilu" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "poilus" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poilu" and "poilus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "poilu" or "poilus" show up more?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "poilu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poilus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #158,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poilu" and "poilus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs poilus". 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 #158,729 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.