centièmevscentièmesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,797
“centième” frequency rank
#30,512
“centièmes” frequency rank
54309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature centième centièmes
Definition Qui a rapport à cent pour l’ordre, le rang. Pluriel de centième.

Same sound, different letters: centième vs centièmes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. centième runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against centièmes's 9 (CVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
centième
9 ch
centièmes

Homophone desk: centième vs centièmes

This is the hard kind. centième and centièmes are pronounced identically (\sɑ̃.tjɛm\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “centième” sits inside “centièmes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

centième is recorded at frequency rank #23,797, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.tjɛm\. centièmes is at rank #30,512, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.tjɛm\.

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 54309, this pair ranks #134,892 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of centième vs centièmes

Shared letters: ceimntè. Private to "centième": -. Private to "centièmes": s.

"centième" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "centièmes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "centième" and "centièmes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\sɑ̃.tjɛm\), 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, "centième" or "centièmes"?
"centième" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,797 in our French list, against #30,512 for "centièmes". 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 "centième" / "centièmes". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "centième" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "centièmes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #134,892 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "centième" and "centièmes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "centièmes vs centrées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #134,892 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