abatvsabatsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,305
“abat” frequency rank
#39,618
“abats” frequency rank
52923
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abat abats
Definition Fait d’abattre, au sens de tuer. Pluriel de abat.

Same sound, different letters: abat vs abats

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. abat runs 4 letters (VCVC) against abats's 5 (VCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
abat
5 ch
abats

Same sound, different spelling - abat / abats

This is the hard kind. abat and abats are pronounced identically (\a.ba\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “abat” sits inside “abats”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52923, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abat is recorded at frequency rank #13,305, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ba\. abats is at rank #39,618, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ba\.

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 52923, this pair ranks #144,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abat vs abats

Shared letters: abt. Private to "abat": -. Private to "abats": s.

"abat" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "abats" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abat ← aabt · abatt · abbat · abta · baat
  • abats ← aabts · abast · abatss · abatts · abbats · abtas · baats

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abat" and "abats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.ba\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "abat" vs "abats" - which ranks higher?
"abat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,305 in our French list, against #39,618 for "abats". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "abat" / "abats". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #144,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abat" and "abats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aba vs abats". 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 #144,325 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