volaillevsvolaillesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,187
“volaille” frequency rank
#20,020
“volailles” frequency rank
39207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature volaille volailles
Definition Ensemble des oiseaux qu’on nourrit ordinairement dans une basse-cour, et principalement des poules, poulets et chapons. Pluriel de volaille.

Where the eye mixes volaille and volailles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. volaille runs 8 letters (CVCVVCCV) against volailles's 9 (CVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
volaille
9 ch
volailles

Look-alike desk: volaille vs volailles

A purely visual mix-up. volaille (\vɔ.lɑj\) and volailles (\vɔ.laj\) 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) - “volaille” sits inside “volailles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

volaille is recorded at frequency rank #19,187, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɔ.lɑj\. volailles is at rank #20,020, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔ.laj\.

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 39207, this pair ranks #249,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of volaille vs volailles

Shared letters: aeilov. Private to "volaille": -. Private to "volailles": s.

"volaille" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "volailles" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • volailleovlaille · vloaille · voalille · volaile · volailel · volalile · volialle · vollaille
  • volaillesovlailles · vloailles · voalilles · volailels · volailes · volailless · volaillse · volaliles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "volaille" for "volailles" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vɔ.lɑj\ versus \vɔ.laj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "volaille" vs "volailles" - which ranks higher?
"volaille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,187 in our French list, against #20,020 for "volailles". 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 "volaille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "volailles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "volaille" and "volailles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "volailles vs volatiles". 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 #249,676 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