basiquevsbasiquesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,739
“basique” frequency rank
#18,407
“basiques” frequency rank
32146
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature basique basiques
Definition De base, élémentaire, rudimentaire, fondamental. Pluriel de basique.

Same sound, different letters: basique vs basiques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
basique
8 ch
basiques

Ear matches; page differs - basique and basiques

This is the hard kind. basique and basiques are pronounced identically (\ba.zik\) 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) - “basique” sits inside “basiques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

basique is recorded at frequency rank #13,739, classified as anadj, pronounced \ba.zik\. basiques is at rank #18,407, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ba.zik\.

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 32146, this pair ranks #299,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of basique vs basiques

Shared letters: abeiqsu. Private to "basique": -. Private to "basiques": -.

"basique" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "basiques" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • basiqueabsique · baisque · basiqeu · basiqque · basiuqe · basqiue · bassique · bbasique
  • basiquesabsiques · baisques · basiqeus · basiqques · basiquess · basiquse · basiuqes · basqiues

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "basique" and "basiques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ba.zik\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "basique" or "basiques"?
"basique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,739 in our French list, against #18,407 for "basiques". 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 "basique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "basiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "basique" and "basiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barriques vs basiques". 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 #299,217 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