Which to use
“sole” and “soler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,037
- “sole” frequency rank
- #48,202
- “soler” frequency rank
- 72239
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sole | soler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie inférieure creuse du sabot. ^([1]) | Nom donné dans l’Aisne à un cépage donnant du raisin noir, le peloursin. |
Where the eye mixes sole and soler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against soler's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses sole with soler
A purely visual mix-up. sole (\sɔl\) and soler (\sɔ.le\) 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 extra letter(s) - “sole” sits inside “soler”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sole is recorded at frequency rank #24,037, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔl\. soler is at rank #48,202, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔ.le\.
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 72239, this pair ranks #44,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sole vs soler
Shared letters: elos. Private to "sole": -. Private to "soler": r.
"sole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "soler" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sole" and "soler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sole" or "soler" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sole" and "soler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "socles vs soler". 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 #44,697 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.