admirablesvsadorablesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,135
“admirables” frequency rank
#18,925
“adorables” frequency rank
58060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature admirables adorables
Definition Pluriel de admirable. Pluriel de adorable.

Where the eye mixes admirables and adorables

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. admirables runs 10 letters (VCCVCVCCVC) against adorables's 9 (VCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
admirables
9 ch
adorables

Look-alike desk: admirables vs adorables

A purely visual mix-up. admirables (\ad.mi.ʁabl\) and adorables (\a.dɔ.ʁabl\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

admirables is recorded at frequency rank #39,135, classified as anadj, pronounced \ad.mi.ʁabl\. adorables is at rank #18,925, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.dɔ.ʁabl\.

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 58060, this pair ranks #111,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of admirables vs adorables

Shared letters: abdelrs. Private to "admirables": im. Private to "adorables": o.

"admirables" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVC  ·  "adorables" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • admirablesaddmirables · adimrables · admiarbles · admirabbles · admirabels · admirabless · admirablles · admirablse
  • adorablesaddorables · adoarbles · adorabbles · adorabels · adorabless · adorablles · adorablse · adoralbes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "admirables" and "adorables" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ad.mi.ʁabl\ versus \a.dɔ.ʁabl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "admirables" or "adorables" show up more?
"adorables" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,925 in our French list, against #39,135 for "admirables". 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 "admirables" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adorables" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #111,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "admirables" and "adorables" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adorables vs arables". 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 #111,299 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