Which to use
“poilue” and “polluée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,461
- “poilue” frequency rank
- #35,648
- “polluée” frequency rank
- 75109
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poilue | polluée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de poilu. | Féminin singulier de pollué. |
Where the eye mixes poilue and polluée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poilue runs 6 letters (CVVCVV) against polluée's 7 (CVCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses poilue with polluée
A purely visual mix-up. poilue (\pwa.ly\) and polluée (\pɔ.lɥe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poilue is recorded at frequency rank #39,461, classified as anadj, pronounced \pwa.ly\. polluée is at rank #35,648, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.lɥe\.
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 75109, this pair ranks #35,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of poilue vs polluée
Shared letters: elopu. Private to "poilue": i. Private to "polluée": é.
"poilue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV · "polluée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- poilue ← opilue · piolue · poileu · poillue · poiule · poliue · ppoilue
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poilue" for "polluée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "poilue" vs "polluée" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poilue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "polluée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #35,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poilue" and "polluée" 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 #35,110 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.