Which to use
“artifice” and “artifices” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,780
- “artifice” frequency rank
- #21,532
- “artifices” frequency rank
- 31312
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | artifice | artifices |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui sert à déguiser, à tromper. | Pluriel de artifice. |
Same sound, different letters: artifice vs artifices
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. artifice runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against artifices's 9 (VCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - artifice / artifices
This is the hard kind. artifice and artifices are pronounced identically (\aʁ.ti.fis\) 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) - “artifice” sits inside “artifices”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
artifice is recorded at frequency rank #9,780, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.ti.fis\. artifices is at rank #21,532, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.ti.fis\.
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 31312, this pair ranks #304,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of artifice vs artifices
Shared letters: acefirt. Private to "artifice": -. Private to "artifices": s.
"artifice" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV · "artifices" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "artifice" and "artifices" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "artifice" or "artifices"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "artifice" / "artifices". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "artifice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "artifices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "artifice" and "artifices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "artifices vs artificiels". 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 #304,573 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.