Which to use
“aiguille” and “aiguilles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,929
- “aiguille” frequency rank
- #10,442
- “aiguilles” frequency rank
- 18371
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aiguille | aiguilles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite tige de métal fine, pointue à un bout et équipée d’un trou appelé chas à l’autre bout pour y passer un fil. Elle est utilisée pour coudre, pour broder, pour faire de la tapisserie, etc. | Pluriel de aiguille. |
Same sound, different letters: aiguille vs aiguilles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.
Homophone desk: aiguille vs aiguilles
This is the hard kind. aiguille and aiguilles are pronounced identically (\e.ɡɥij\) 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) - “aiguille” sits inside “aiguilles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aiguille is recorded at frequency rank #7,929, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ɡɥij\. aiguilles is at rank #10,442, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ɡɥij\.
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 18371, this pair ranks #378,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of aiguille vs aiguilles
Shared letters: aegilu. Private to "aiguille": -. Private to "aiguilles": s.
"aiguille" · 8 letters · shape VVCVVCCV · "aiguilles" · 9 letters · shape VVCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "aiguille" for "aiguilles" ever safe?
Which is more common, "aiguille" or "aiguilles"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "aiguille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aiguilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aiguille" and "aiguilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aiguiller vs aiguilles". 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 #378,670 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.