quilvsquilleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“quil” and “quille” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,225
“quil” frequency rank
#32,972
“quille” frequency rank
48197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quil quille
Definition Cri perçant, glapissement. Partie fixe et immergée de la coque sous le bateau faisant office de dérive fixe et de contrepoids à la gîte.

Where the eye mixes quil and quille

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. quil runs 4 letters (CVVC) against quille's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
quil
6 ch
quille

Look-alike desk: quil vs quille

A purely visual mix-up. quil (\kil\) and quille (\kij\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “quil” sits inside “quille”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quil is recorded at frequency rank #15,225, classified as anoun, pronounced \kil\. quille is at rank #32,972, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kij\.

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 48197, this pair ranks #180,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quil vs quille

Shared letters: ilqu. Private to "quil": -. Private to "quille": e.

"quil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "quille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quilqiul · qquil · quill · quli · uqil
  • quilleqiulle · qquille · quile · quilel · qulile · uqille

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "quil" and "quille" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kil\ versus \kij\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "quil" vs "quille" - which ranks higher?
"quil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,225 in our French list, against #32,972 for "quille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,855 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quil" and "quille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quille vs quite". 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 #180,855 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list