altérationvsaltérationsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,110
“altération” frequency rank
#36,699
“altérations” frequency rank
54809
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altération altérations
Definition Changement dans l’état d’une chose. Pluriel de altération.

Same sound, different letters: altération vs altérations

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters.

10 ch
altération
11 ch
altérations

Same sound, different spelling - altération / altérations

This is the hard kind. altération and altérations are pronounced identically (\al.te.ʁa.sjɔ̃\) 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) - “altération” sits inside “altérations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altération is recorded at frequency rank #18,110, classified as anoun, pronounced \al.te.ʁa.sjɔ̃\. altérations is at rank #36,699, tagged as anoun, pronounced \al.te.ʁa.sjɔ̃\.

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 54809, this pair ranks #131,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of altération vs altérations

Shared letters: ailnorté. Private to "altération": -. Private to "altérations": s.

"altération" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC  ·  "altérations" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "altération" and "altérations" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\al.te.ʁa.sjɔ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "altération" vs "altérations" - which ranks higher?
"altération" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,110 in our French list, against #36,699 for "altérations". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"altération" and "altérations" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "altération" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "altérations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altération" and "altérations" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altérations vs altercation". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #131,521 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