Which to use
“sole” and “soli” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,037
- “sole” frequency rank
- #48,798
- “soli” frequency rank
- 72835
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sole | soli |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie inférieure creuse du sabot. ^([1]) | Sous le faîtage, espace servant à engranger le foin (fenière) et où l'on peut aussi coucher, en y accédant par une échelle extérieure. |
Where the eye mixes sole and soli
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sole and soli follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses sole with soli
A purely visual mix-up. sole (\sɔl\) and soli (\sɔ.lo\) 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 a single letter - e in “sole” becomes i in “soli”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72835, 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\. soli is at rank #48,798, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔ.lo\.
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 72835, this pair ranks #42,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sole vs soli
Shared letters: los. Private to "sole": e. Private to "soli": i.
"sole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "soli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sole" and "soli" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sole" vs "soli" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sole" and "soli" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sole" and "soli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soli vs spi". 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 #42,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.