brochevsbrochesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,770
“broche” frequency rank
#31,862
“broches” frequency rank
51632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature broche broches
Definition Tige pointue que l’on passe au travers d’une volaille ou d’une pièce de viande que l’on souhaite faire rôtir, pour la faire tourner au-dessus de la flamme. Pluriel de broche.

Same sound, different letters: broche vs broches

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
broche
7 ch
broches

Ear matches; page differs - broche and broches

This is the hard kind. broche and broches are pronounced identically (\bʁɔʃ\) 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) - “broche” sits inside “broches”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

broche is recorded at frequency rank #19,770, classified as anoun, pronounced \bʁɔʃ\. broches is at rank #31,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁɔʃ\.

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 51632, this pair ranks #153,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of broche vs broches

Shared letters: bcehor. Private to "broche": -. Private to "broches": s.

"broche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "broches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brochebbroche · borche · brcohe · brocche · broceh · brochhe · brohce · brroche
  • brochesbbroches · borches · brcohes · brocches · brocehs · brochess · brochhes · brochse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "broche" and "broches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\bʁɔʃ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "broche" vs "broches" - which ranks higher?
"broche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,770 in our French list, against #31,862 for "broches". 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 "broche" / "broches". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "broche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "broches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "broche" and "broches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "broches vs bronche". 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 #153,573 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