bombardiervsbombardiersTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,723
“bombardier” frequency rank
#25,909
“bombardiers” frequency rank
37632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bombardier bombardiers
Definition Artilleur qui lance des bombes. Pluriel de bombardier.

Same sound, different letters: bombardier vs bombardiers

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. bombardier runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVVC) against bombardiers's 11 (CVCCVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
bombardier
11 ch
bombardiers

Ear matches; page differs - bombardier and bombardiers

This is the hard kind. bombardier and bombardiers are pronounced identically (\bɔ̃.baʁ.dje\) 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) - “bombardier” sits inside “bombardiers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bombardier is recorded at frequency rank #11,723, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɔ̃.baʁ.dje\. bombardiers is at rank #25,909, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔ̃.baʁ.dje\.

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 37632, this pair ranks #261,117 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bombardier vs bombardiers

Shared letters: abdeimor. Private to "bombardier": -. Private to "bombardiers": s.

"bombardier" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC  ·  "bombardiers" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bombardier ← bbombardier · bmobardier · bobmardier · bomabrdier · bombadrier · bombarddier · bombardeir · bombardierr
  • bombardiers ← bbombardiers · bmobardiers · bobmardiers · bomabrdiers · bombadriers · bombarddiers · bombardeirs · bombardierrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bombardier" and "bombardiers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\bɔ̃.baʁ.dje\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "bombardier" vs "bombardiers" - which ranks higher?
"bombardier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,723 in our French list, against #25,909 for "bombardiers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "bombardier" / "bombardiers". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bombardier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bombardiers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #261,117 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bombardier" and "bombardiers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bombardés vs bombardiers". 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 #261,117 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