Pleural or plural?
pleural is an adjective meaning “Of, relating to, or affecting the pleura, or the sides of the thorax”; plural is an adjective meaning “Consisting of or containing more than one of something”. They sound the same (/ˈplʊə.ɹəl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) plural is about 10 times as common as pleural.
What is the difference between pleural and plural?
| pleural | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Of, relating to, or affecting the pleura, or the sides of the thorax Thin and transparent An internal segment of the turtle carapace | Consisting of or containing more than one of something In systems of number, not singular or not singular or dual The plural number. In English, referring to more or less than one of something |
| Example | none recorded | The notion of culture is one whose meanings are plural and shifting |
| Pronunciation | /ˈplʊə.ɹəl/ /ˈplʊɹ.əl/ | /ˈplʊəɹəl/ /ˈplɔːɹəl/ /ˈpljʊəɹəl/ |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words | 3.5 times per million words |
Sources: pleural and plural in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of pleural and plural
pleural
- 1
Of, relating to, or affecting the pleura, or the sides of the thorax
- 2
An internal segment of the turtle carapace
- 3
Thin and transparent
plural
- 1
Consisting of or containing more than one of something
The notion of culture is one whose meanings are plural and shifting
- 2
The plural number. In English, referring to more or less than one of something
- 3
In systems of number, not singular or not singular or dual
English nouns usually have singular and plural forms
- 4
A word in the form in which it potentially refers to something other than one person or thing; and other than two things if the language has a dual form
The plural of 'cat' is 'cats', but the plural of 'child' is 'children'
- 5
Pluralistic
- 6
A person with some form of multiplicity, particularly dissociative identity disorder
Autistics, plurals, and gender nonconforming individuals are all stigmatized as not being capable of understanding their own experiences and are repeatedly attacked with…
- 7
Having some form of multiplicity, especially dissociative identity disorder
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, pleural or plural?
pleural appears about once in every 3 million words; plural 3.5 times per million words.
pleural about once in every 3 million wordsplural 3.5 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).