Which to use
“civilisation” and “civilisations” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,472
- “civilisation” frequency rank
- #10,661
- “civilisations” frequency rank
- 15133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | civilisation | civilisations |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de civiliser ou état de ce qui est civilisé. | Pluriel de civilisation. |
Same sound, different letters: civilisation vs civilisations
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. civilisation runs 12 letters (CVCVCVCVCVVC) against civilisations's 13 (CVCVCVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - civilisation and civilisations
This is the hard kind. civilisation and civilisations are pronounced identically (\si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\) 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) - “civilisation” sits inside “civilisations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
civilisation is recorded at frequency rank #4,472, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\. civilisations is at rank #10,661, tagged as anoun, pronounced \si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\.
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 15133, this pair ranks #393,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of civilisation vs civilisations
Shared letters: acilnostv. Private to "civilisation": -. Private to "civilisations": -.
"civilisation" · 12 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCVVC · "civilisations" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- civilisation ← ccivilisation · ciivlisation · civiilsation · civiliastion · civilisaiton · civilisatino · civilisationn · civilisatoin
- civilisations ← ccivilisations · ciivlisations · civiilsations · civiliastions · civilisaitons · civilisatinos · civilisationns · civilisationss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "civilisation" and "civilisations" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "civilisation" vs "civilisations" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"civilisation" and "civilisations" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "civilisation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "civilisations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #393,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #393,716 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.