Which to use
“artisan” and “artisans” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,633
- “artisan” frequency rank
- #5,947
- “artisans” frequency rank
- 16580
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | artisan | artisans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui relève d’un métier mécanique ou manuel. | Masculin pluriel de artisan. |
Same sound, different letters: artisan vs artisans
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Homophone desk: artisan vs artisans
This is the hard kind. artisan and artisans are pronounced identically (\aʁ.ti.zɑ̃\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “artisan” sits inside “artisans”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
artisan is recorded at frequency rank #10,633, classified as anadj, pronounced \aʁ.ti.zɑ̃\. artisans is at rank #5,947, tagged as anadj, pronounced \aʁ.ti.zɑ̃\.
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 16580, this pair ranks #387,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of artisan vs artisans
Shared letters: ainrst. Private to "artisan": -. Private to "artisans": -.
"artisan" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "artisans" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "artisan" for "artisans" ever safe?
Frequency check: "artisan" vs "artisans" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "artisan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "artisans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "artisan" and "artisans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Artis vs artisan". 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 #387,180 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.