amplevsampleurConfusable pair

Quick tell: ample is a adjective, ampleur is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ample” is an adjective and “ampleur” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,613
“ample” frequency rank
#4,641
“ampleur” frequency rank
22254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ample ampleur
Definition Qui dépasse en largeur et en longueur la mesure ordinaire. Caractère de ce qui est ample.

Where the eye mixes ample and ampleur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ample
7 ch
ampleur

Look-alike desk: ample vs ampleur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ample is \ɑ̃pl\ while ampleur is \ɑ̃.plœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ample” sits inside “ampleur”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ample is recorded at frequency rank #17,613, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃pl\. ampleur is at rank #4,641, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.plœʁ\.

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 22254, this pair ranks #359,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ample vs ampleur

Shared letters: aelmp. Private to "ample": -. Private to "ampleur": ru.

"ample" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "ampleur" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ampleamlpe · ammple · ampel · amplle · ampple · apmle
  • ampleuramlpeur · ammpleur · ampelur · ampleru · ampleurr · amplleur · ampluer · amppleur

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ample" and "ampleur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ample" is an adjective and "ampleur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ample" or "ampleur" show up more?
"ampleur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,641 in our French list, against #17,613 for "ample". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ample" and "ampleur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ample" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ampleur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #359,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ample" and "ampleur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ampère vs ample". 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 #359,012 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