Which to use
“chiffre” and “chiffres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,946
- “chiffre” frequency rank
- #1,434
- “chiffres” frequency rank
- 3380
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chiffre | chiffres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caractère utilisé pour écrire les nombres. Par analogie avec les mots, on peut dire que les chiffres constituent l’alphabet des nombres. | Pluriel de chiffre. |
Same sound, different letters: chiffre vs chiffres
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. chiffre runs 7 letters (CCVCCCV) against chiffres's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: chiffre vs chiffres
This is the hard kind. chiffre and chiffres are pronounced identically (\ʃifʁ\) 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) - “chiffre” sits inside “chiffres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chiffre is recorded at frequency rank #1,946, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃifʁ\. chiffres is at rank #1,434, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃifʁ\.
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 3380, this pair ranks #434,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chiffre vs chiffres
Shared letters: cefhir. Private to "chiffre": -. Private to "chiffres": s.
"chiffre" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV · "chiffres" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chiffre" and "chiffres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "chiffre" or "chiffres" show up more?
After this comparison
"chiffre" and "chiffres" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "chiffre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chiffres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chiffre" and "chiffres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chiffons vs chiffres". 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 #434,171 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.