verrouillevsverrouillerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,115
“verrouille” frequency rank
#28,014
“verrouiller” frequency rank
70129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verrouille verrouiller
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de verrouiller. Fermer au verrou.

Where the eye mixes verrouille and verrouiller

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. verrouille runs 10 letters (CVCCVVVCCV) against verrouiller's 11 (CVCCVVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
verrouille
11 ch
verrouiller

Visual trap between verrouille and verrouiller

A purely visual mix-up. verrouille (\vɛ.ʁuj\) and verrouiller (\ve.ʁu.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 extra letter(s) - “verrouille” sits inside “verrouiller”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verrouille is recorded at frequency rank #42,115, classified as averb, pronounced \vɛ.ʁuj\. verrouiller is at rank #28,014, tagged as averb, pronounced \ve.ʁu.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 70129, this pair ranks #52,504 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verrouille vs verrouiller

Shared letters: eiloruv. Private to "verrouille": -. Private to "verrouiller": -.

"verrouille" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVVCCV  ·  "verrouiller" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verrouille ← evrrouille · veroruille · verouille · verroiulle · verrouile · verrouilel · verroulile · verruoille
  • verrouiller ← evrrouiller · veroruiller · verouiller · verroiuller · verrouilelr · verrouiler · verrouillerr · verrouillre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verrouille" for "verrouiller" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vɛ.ʁuj\ versus \ve.ʁu.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "verrouille" or "verrouiller" show up more?
"verrouiller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,014 in our French list, against #42,115 for "verrouille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "verrouille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verrouiller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,504 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verrouille" and "verrouiller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verrouille vs verrouillée". 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 #52,504 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