abatsvsabattusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: abats is a noun, abattus is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abats” is a noun and “abattus” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,618
“abats” frequency rank
#14,590
“abattus” frequency rank
54208
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abats abattus
Definition Pluriel de abat. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe abattre.

Where the eye mixes abats and abattus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. abats runs 5 letters (VCVCC) against abattus's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
abats
7 ch
abattus

Visual trap between abats and abattus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abats is \a.ba\ while abattus is \a.ba.ty\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abats is recorded at frequency rank #39,618, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ba\. abattus is at rank #14,590, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ba.ty\.

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 54208, this pair ranks #135,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abats vs abattus

Shared letters: abst. Private to "abats": -. Private to "abattus": u.

"abats" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "abattus" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abats ← aabts · abast · abatss · abatts · abbats · abtas · baats
  • abattus ← aabttus · abattsu · abattuss · abatus · abatuts · abbattus · abtatus · baattus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abats" for "abattus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abats" is a noun and "abattus" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "abats" vs "abattus" - which ranks higher?
"abattus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,590 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

Eye-level mix-up between "abats" and "abattus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abattus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #135,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abats" and "abattus" 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 #135,511 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