aptitudevsaptitudesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,306
“aptitude” frequency rank
#13,963
“aptitudes” frequency rank
26269
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aptitude aptitudes
Definition Capacité, compétence, disposition naturelle à faire quelque chose. Pluriel de aptitude.

Same sound, different letters: aptitude vs aptitudes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. aptitude runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against aptitudes's 9 (VCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
aptitude
9 ch
aptitudes

Homophone desk: aptitude vs aptitudes

This is the hard kind. aptitude and aptitudes are pronounced identically (\ap.ti.tyd\) 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) - “aptitude” sits inside “aptitudes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aptitude is recorded at frequency rank #12,306, classified as anoun, pronounced \ap.ti.tyd\. aptitudes is at rank #13,963, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ap.ti.tyd\.

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 26269, this pair ranks #336,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aptitude vs aptitudes

Shared letters: adeiptu. Private to "aptitude": -. Private to "aptitudes": s.

"aptitude" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "aptitudes" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aptitude ← apittude · apptitude · aptitdue · aptittude · aptitudde · aptitued · aptiutde · apttitude
  • aptitudes ← apittudes · apptitudes · aptitdues · aptittudes · aptituddes · aptitudess · aptitudse · aptitueds

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aptitude" and "aptitudes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ap.ti.tyd\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "aptitude" vs "aptitudes" - which ranks higher?
"aptitude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,306 in our French list, against #13,963 for "aptitudes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aptitude" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aptitudes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #336,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aptitude" and "aptitudes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altitudes vs aptitudes". 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 #336,094 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