Which to use
“source” and “sourcil” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #662
- “source” frequency rank
- #23,032
- “sourcil” frequency rank
- 23694
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | source | sourcil |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Point d’émergence naturelle d’eau, généralement souterraine, à la surface du sol. | Saillie en forme d’arc, garnie de poils, qui se trouve au-dessus de chaque œil. |
Where the eye mixes source and sourcil
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between source and sourcil
A purely visual mix-up. source (\suʁs\) and sourcil (\suʁ.sil\) 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 23694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
source is recorded at frequency rank #662, classified as anoun, pronounced \suʁs\. sourcil is at rank #23,032, tagged as anoun, pronounced \suʁ.sil\.
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 23694, this pair ranks #350,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of source vs sourcil
Shared letters: corsu. Private to "source": e. Private to "sourcil": il.
"source" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "sourcil" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "source" and "sourcil" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "source" vs "sourcil" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "source" and "sourcil" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "source" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sourcil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #350,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "source" and "sourcil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "souabe vs source". 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 #350,978 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.