châtimentvschâtimentsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,632
“châtiment” frequency rank
#33,610
“châtiments” frequency rank
48242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature châtiment châtiments
Definition Peine infligée en vue de corriger. Pluriel de châtiment.

Same sound, different letters: châtiment vs châtiments

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. châtiment runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVCC) against châtiments's 10 (CCVCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
châtiment
10 ch
châtiments

Same sound, different spelling - châtiment / châtiments

This is the hard kind. châtiment and châtiments are pronounced identically (\ʃɑ.ti.mɑ̃\) 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) - “châtiment” sits inside “châtiments”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

châtiment is recorded at frequency rank #14,632, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ.ti.mɑ̃\. châtiments is at rank #33,610, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ.ti.mɑ̃\.

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 48242, this pair ranks #180,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of châtiment vs châtiments

Shared letters: cehimntâ. Private to "châtiment": -. Private to "châtiments": s.

"châtiment" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCC  ·  "châtiments" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "châtiment" and "châtiments" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʃɑ.ti.mɑ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "châtiment" or "châtiments" show up more?
"châtiment" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,632 in our French list, against #33,610 for "châtiments". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"châtiment" and "châtiments" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "châtiment" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "châtiments" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #180,493 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