blocvsblocksWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,609
“bloc” frequency rank
#35,401
“blocks” frequency rank
38010
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bloc blocks
Definition Masse, gros morceau d’une matière pesante et dure, telle que la pierre, le marbre, le fer non encore travaillés. Pluriel de block.

Same sound, different letters: bloc vs blocks

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

4 ch
bloc
6 ch
blocks

Same sound, different spelling - bloc / blocks

This is the hard kind. bloc and blocks are pronounced identically (\blɔk\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “bloc” sits inside “blocks”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bloc is recorded at frequency rank #2,609, classified as anoun, pronounced \blɔk\. blocks is at rank #35,401, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blɔk\.

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 38010, this pair ranks #258,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bloc vs blocks

Shared letters: bclo. Private to "bloc": -. Private to "blocks": ks.

"bloc" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "blocks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blocbbloc · blco · blloc · blocc · bolc · lboc
  • blocksbblocks · blcoks · bllocks · bloccks · blockks · blockss · blocsk · blokcs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bloc" for "blocks" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\blɔk\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "bloc" vs "blocks" - which ranks higher?
"bloc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,609 in our French list, against #35,401 for "blocks". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bloc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blocks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bloc" and "blocks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blocks vs bloques". 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 #258,346 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