tailleurvstilleulWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,701
“tailleur” frequency rank
#31,282
“tilleul” frequency rank
44983
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tailleur tilleul
Definition Celui qui taille. Tilia, genre d’arbres de la famille des Malvacées dont les fleurs odorantes et les bractées sont utilisées en infusions apaisantes.

Where the eye mixes tailleur and tilleul

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tailleur runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against tilleul's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
tailleur
7 ch
tilleul

Look-alike desk: tailleur vs tilleul

A purely visual mix-up. tailleur (\tɑ.jœʁ\) and tilleul (\ti.jœl\) 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 44983, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tailleur is recorded at frequency rank #13,701, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ.jœʁ\. tilleul is at rank #31,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ti.jœl\.

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 44983, this pair ranks #206,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tailleur vs tilleul

Shared letters: eiltu. Private to "tailleur": ar. Private to "tilleul": -.

"tailleur" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC  ·  "tilleul" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tailleur ← atilleur · tailelur · taileur · tailleru · tailleurr · tailluer · talileur · tialleur
  • tilleul ← itlleul · tilelul · tileul · tillelu · tilleull · tilluel · tlileul · ttilleul

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tailleur" and "tilleul" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tɑ.jœʁ\ versus \ti.jœl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "tailleur" or "tilleul" show up more?
"tailleur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,701 in our French list, against #31,282 for "tilleul". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tailleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tilleul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tailleur" and "tilleul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tilleul vs tilleuls". 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 #206,304 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