atomevsatomesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,092
“atome” frequency rank
#12,309
“atomes” frequency rank
27401
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atome atomes
Definition Composant de la matière, plus petite partie d’un corps simple pouvant se combiner avec une autre. Pluriel de atome.

Same sound, different letters: atome vs atomes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
atome
6 ch
atomes

Ear matches; page differs - atome and atomes

This is the hard kind. atome and atomes are pronounced identically (\a.tom\) 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) - “atome” sits inside “atomes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atome is recorded at frequency rank #15,092, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.tom\. atomes is at rank #12,309, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.tom\.

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 27401, this pair ranks #329,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of atome vs atomes

Shared letters: aemot. Private to "atome": -. Private to "atomes": s.

"atome" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "atomes" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atomeaotme · atmoe · atoem · atomme · attome · taome
  • atomesaotmes · atmoes · atoems · atomess · atommes · atomse · attomes · taomes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "atome" and "atomes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.tom\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "atome" vs "atomes" - which ranks higher?
"atomes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,309 in our French list, against #15,092 for "atome". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "atome" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atomes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #329,230 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atome" and "atomes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atome vs atos". 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 #329,230 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