Which to use
“poilues” and “poilus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,282
- “poilues” frequency rank
- #28,295
- “poilus” frequency rank
- 77577
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poilues | poilus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de poilu. | Masculin pluriel de poilu. |
Same sound, different letters: poilues vs poilus
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - poilues / poilus
This is the hard kind. poilues 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poilues is recorded at frequency rank #49,282, 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 77577, this pair ranks #27,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of poilues vs poilus
Shared letters: ilopsu. Private to "poilues": e. Private to "poilus": -.
"poilues" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "poilus" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poilues" and "poilus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "poilues" vs "poilus" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "poilues" / "poilus". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "poilues" 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 #27,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poilues" and "poilus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piqués 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 #27,973 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.