assassinatvsassassinatsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,314
“assassinat” frequency rank
#17,877
“assassinats” frequency rank
23191
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature assassinat assassinats
Definition Action d’assassiner, de donner la mort intentionnellement. Pluriel d’assassinat.

Same sound, different letters: assassinat vs assassinats

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters.

10 ch
assassinat
11 ch
assassinats

Ear matches; page differs - assassinat and assassinats

This is the hard kind. assassinat and assassinats are pronounced identically (\a.sa.si.na\) 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) - “assassinat” sits inside “assassinats”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

assassinat is recorded at frequency rank #5,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.sa.si.na\. assassinats is at rank #17,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.sa.si.na\.

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 23191, this pair ranks #353,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of assassinat vs assassinats

Shared letters: ainst. Private to "assassinat": -. Private to "assassinats": -.

"assassinat" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC  ·  "assassinats" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • assassinatasassinat · asasssinat · assasinat · assasisnat · assassiant · assassinatt · assassinnat · assassinta
  • assassinatsasassinats · asasssinats · assasinats · assasisnats · assassiants · assassinast · assassinatss · assassinatts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "assassinat" for "assassinats" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.sa.si.na\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "assassinat" or "assassinats" show up more?
"assassinat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,314 in our French list, against #17,877 for "assassinats". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "assassinat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "assassinats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #353,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "assassinat" and "assassinats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "assassinats vs assassinées". 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 #353,856 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