Which to use
“smile” and “smiley” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,233
- “smile” frequency rank
- #24,036
- “smiley” frequency rank
- 51269
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | smile | smiley |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sourire. | Représentation graphique d’un visage humain souriant, le plus souvent coloré en jaune. |
Letter map: smile vs smiley
Shared letters muted; letters that set smile and smiley apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. smile runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against smiley's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on smile vs smiley
smile and smiley are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “smile” sits inside “smiley”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
smile is recorded at frequency rank #27,233, classified as anoun. smiley is at rank #24,036, tagged as anoun, pronounced \smaj.lɛ\.
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 51269, this pair ranks #156,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of smile vs smiley
Shared letters: eilms. Private to "smile": -. Private to "smiley": y.
"smile" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "smiley" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "smile" and "smiley" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "smile" vs "smiley" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "smile" vs "smiley" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "smile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "smiley" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #156,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "smile" and "smiley" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seille vs smile". 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 #156,310 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.