apostrophe vs apostrophes

Which to use

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

#35,808
“apostrophe” frequency rank: #48,916
“apostrophes” frequency rank: 84724
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	apostrophe	apostrophes
Definition	Interpellation brusque, souvent pour un propos dénigrant, un reproche ou une pure insulte ou injure.	Pluriel de apostrophe.

Same sound, different letters: apostrophe vs apostrophes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. apostrophe runs 10 letters (VCVCCCVCCV) against apostrophes's 11 (VCVCCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch

apostrophe

11 ch

apostrophes

Same sound, different spelling - apostrophe / apostrophes

This is the hard kind. apostrophe and apostrophes are pronounced identically (\a.pɔs.tʁɔf\) 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) - “apostrophe” sits inside “apostrophes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84724, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apostrophe is recorded at frequency rank #35,808, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pɔs.tʁɔf\. apostrophes is at rank #48,916, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pɔs.tʁɔf\.

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 84724, this pair ranks #12,474 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apostrophe vs apostrophes

Shared letters: aehoprst. Private to "apostrophe": -. Private to "apostrophes": -.

"apostrophe" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCCVCCV · "apostrophes" · 11 letters · shape VCVCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

apostrophe ← aopstrophe · aposrtophe · aposstrophe · apostorphe · apostrohpe · apostropeh · apostrophhe · apostropphe
apostrophes ← aopstrophes · aposrtophes · aposstrophes · apostorphes · apostrohpes · apostropehs · apostrophess · apostrophhes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "apostrophe" and "apostrophes" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (\a.pɔs.tʁɔf\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Frequency check: "apostrophe" vs "apostrophes" - which ranks higher?

"apostrophe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,808 in our French list, against #48,916 for "apostrophes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "apostrophe" / "apostrophes". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

Full dictionary entry for "apostrophe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "apostrophes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #12,474 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
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 #12,474 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.