solivsSOSWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,798
“soli” frequency rank
#10,949
“SOS” frequency rank
59747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soli SOS
Definition Sous le faîtage, espace servant à engranger le foin (fenière) et où l'on peut aussi coucher, en y accédant par une échelle extérieure. Signal de détresse et demande d’assistance immédiate.

Where the eye mixes soli and SOS

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
soli
3 ch
SOS

Look-alike desk: soli vs SOS

A purely visual mix-up. soli (\sɔ.lo\) and SOS (\ɛ.s‿o.ɛs\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soli is recorded at frequency rank #48,798, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔ.lo\. SOS is at rank #10,949, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.s‿o.ɛs\.

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 59747, this pair ranks #101,401 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of soli vs SOS

Shared letters: os. Private to "soli": il. Private to "SOS": -.

"soli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "SOS" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soliosli · sloi · soil · solli · ssoli

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "soli" for "SOS" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɔ.lo\ versus \ɛ.s‿o.ɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "soli" vs "SOS" - which ranks higher?
"SOS" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,949 in our French list, against #48,798 for "soli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "soli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "SOS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,401 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soli" and "SOS" 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 #101,401 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