Which to use
“accident” and “accidents” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,407
- “accident” frequency rank
- #4,116
- “accidents” frequency rank
- 5523
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | accident | accidents |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Événement inattendu qui survient par hasard. | Pluriel de accident. |
Same sound, different letters: accident vs accidents
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. accident runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCC) against accidents's 9 (VCCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - accident and accidents
This is the hard kind. accident and accidents are pronounced identically (\ak.si.dɑ̃\) 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) - “accident” sits inside “accidents”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
accident is recorded at frequency rank #1,407, classified as anoun, pronounced \ak.si.dɑ̃\. accidents is at rank #4,116, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ak.si.dɑ̃\.
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 5523, this pair ranks #428,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of accident vs accidents
Shared letters: acdeint. Private to "accident": -. Private to "accidents": s.
"accident" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC · "accidents" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "accident" for "accidents" ever safe?
Which is more common, "accident" or "accidents"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "accident" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "accidents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #428,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "accident" and "accidents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accidentés vs accidents". 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 #428,786 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.