Which to use
“bolide” and “bolides” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,250
- “bolide” frequency rank
- #37,692
- “bolides” frequency rank
- 66942
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bolide | bolides |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Météore, phénomène de rentrée atmosphérique dont l’éclat dépasse celui des planètes. | Pluriel de bolide. |
Same sound, different letters: bolide vs bolides
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Homophone desk: bolide vs bolides
This is the hard kind. bolide and bolides are pronounced identically (\bɔ.lid\) 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) - “bolide” sits inside “bolides”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bolide is recorded at frequency rank #29,250, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɔ.lid\. bolides is at rank #37,692, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔ.lid\.
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 66942, this pair ranks #65,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bolide vs bolides
Shared letters: bdeilo. Private to "bolide": -. Private to "bolides": s.
"bolide" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "bolides" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bolide" for "bolides" ever safe?
Frequency check: "bolide" vs "bolides" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "bolide" / "bolides". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "bolide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bolides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bolide" and "bolides" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bolides vs bourdes". 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 #65,612 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.