bourgeonvsbourgeonsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,697
“bourgeon” frequency rank
#31,372
“bourgeons” frequency rank
69069
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bourgeon bourgeons
Definition Œil des arbres et des arbrisseaux, qui va se développant et d’où doivent sortir des branches, des feuilles ou des fleurs. Pluriel de bourgeon.

Same sound, different letters: bourgeon vs bourgeons

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

8 ch
bourgeon
9 ch
bourgeons

Same sound, different spelling - bourgeon / bourgeons

This is the hard kind. bourgeon and bourgeons are pronounced identically (\buʁ.ʒɔ̃\) 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) - “bourgeon” sits inside “bourgeons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69069, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bourgeon is recorded at frequency rank #37,697, classified as anoun, pronounced \buʁ.ʒɔ̃\. bourgeons is at rank #31,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʁ.ʒɔ̃\.

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 69069, this pair ranks #56,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bourgeon vs bourgeons

Shared letters: begnoru. Private to "bourgeon": -. Private to "bourgeons": s.

"bourgeon" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC  ·  "bourgeons" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bourgeonbbourgeon · borugeon · bougreon · bouregon · bourgeno · bourgeonn · bourggeon · bourgoen
  • bourgeonsbbourgeons · borugeons · bougreons · bouregons · bourgenos · bourgeonns · bourgeonss · bourgeosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bourgeon" and "bourgeons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\buʁ.ʒɔ̃\), 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, "bourgeon" or "bourgeons"?
"bourgeons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,372 in our French list, against #37,697 for "bourgeon". 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 "bourgeon" / "bourgeons". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bourgeon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bourgeons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bourgeon" and "bourgeons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bougon vs bourgeon". 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 #56,597 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