adultèrevsadultesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,079
“adultère” frequency rank
#2,977
“adultes” frequency rank
18056
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adultère adultes
Definition Qui viole le serment de fidélité conjugale. Pluriel de adulte.

Where the eye mixes adultère and adultes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. adultère runs 8 letters (VCVCCVCV) against adultes's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
adultère
7 ch
adultes

Visual trap between adultère and adultes

A purely visual mix-up. adultère (\a.dyl.tɛʁ\) and adultes (\a.dylt\) 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 18056, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adultère is recorded at frequency rank #15,079, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.dyl.tɛʁ\. adultes is at rank #2,977, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.dylt\.

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 18056, this pair ranks #380,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of adultère vs adultes

Shared letters: adeltu. Private to "adultère": rè. Private to "adultes": s.

"adultère" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV  ·  "adultes" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adultes ← addultes · adlutes · adulets · adulltes · adultess · adultse · adulttes · adutles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "adultère" for "adultes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.dyl.tɛʁ\ versus \a.dylt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "adultère" or "adultes"?
"adultes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,977 in our French list, against #15,079 for "adultère". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adultère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adultes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adultère" and "adultes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adulé vs adultes". 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 #380,208 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