Which to use
“beau” and “beaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #446
- “beau” frequency rank
- #1,247
- “beaux” frequency rank
- 1693
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | beau | beaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | D’aspect agréable à l’œil ou à l’oreille. | Masculin pluriel de beau. |
Same sound, different letters: beau vs beaux
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Homophone desk: beau vs beaux
This is the hard kind. beau and beaux are pronounced identically (\bo\) 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) - “beau” sits inside “beaux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1693, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
beau is recorded at frequency rank #446, classified as anadj, pronounced \bo\. beaux is at rank #1,247, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bo\.
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 1693, this pair ranks #437,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of beau vs beaux
Shared letters: abeu. Private to "beau": -. Private to "beaux": x.
"beau" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "beaux" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "beau" and "beaux" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "beau" vs "beaux" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "beau" / "beaux". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "beau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "beaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "beau" and "beaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beau vs ber". 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 #437,563 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.