quillesvsquilsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,424
“quilles” frequency rank
#32,543
“quils” frequency rank
65967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quilles quils
Definition Bowling. Pluriel de quil.

Where the eye mixes quilles and quils

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. quilles runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against quils's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
quilles
5 ch
quils

Visual trap between quilles and quils

A purely visual mix-up. quilles (\kij\) and quils (\kils\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quilles is recorded at frequency rank #33,424, classified as anoun, pronounced \kij\. quils is at rank #32,543, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kils\.

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 65967, this pair ranks #69,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of quilles vs quils

Shared letters: ilqsu. Private to "quilles": e. Private to "quils": -.

"quilles" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "quils" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quilles ← qiulles · qquilles · quilels · quiles · quilless · quillse · quliles · uqilles
  • quils ← qiuls · qquils · quills · quilss · quisl · qulis · uqils

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quilles" and "quils" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kij\ versus \kils\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "quilles" or "quils"?
"quils" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,543 in our French list, against #33,424 for "quilles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "quilles" and "quils" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quilles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quilles" and "quils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quils 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 #69,935 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