taillervstitillerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,873
“tailler” frequency rank
#33,918
“titiller” frequency rank
46791
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tailler titiller
Definition Couper, retrancher d’une matière, en ôter avec le marteau, le ciseau, ou tout autre instrument, ce qu’il y a de superflu, pour lui donner une certaine forme, pour la rendre propre à tel ou tel usage. Chatouiller légèrement.

Where the eye mixes tailler and titiller

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
tailler
8 ch
titiller

Why the eye confuses tailler with titiller

A purely visual mix-up. tailler (\tɑ.je\) and titiller (\ti.ti.je\) 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 46791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tailler is recorded at frequency rank #12,873, classified as averb, pronounced \tɑ.je\. titiller is at rank #33,918, tagged as averb, pronounced \ti.ti.je\.

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 46791, this pair ranks #192,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tailler vs titiller

Shared letters: eilrt. Private to "tailler": a. Private to "titiller": -.

"tailler" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "titiller" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tailleratiller · tailelr · tailer · taillerr · taillre · taliler · tialler · ttailler
  • titillerittiller · tiitller · titilelr · titiler · titillerr · titillre · titliler · tittiller

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tailler" and "titiller" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tɑ.je\ versus \ti.ti.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tailler" vs "titiller" - which ranks higher?
"tailler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,873 in our French list, against #33,918 for "titiller". 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 "tailler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "titiller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tailler" and "titiller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tailler vs taillis". 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 #192,050 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