climatevsclimatsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: climate is a adjective, climats is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“climate” is an adjective and “climats” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,614
“climate” frequency rank
#20,960
“climats” frequency rank
54574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature climate climats
Definition Climatique. Pluriel de climat.

Where the eye mixes climate and climats

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. climate (CCVCVCV) and climats (CCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
climate
7 ch
climats

Look-alike desk: climate vs climats

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: climate is \ˈklaɪ.mɪt\ while climats is \kli.ma\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “climate” becomes s in “climats”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

climate is recorded at frequency rank #33,614, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈklaɪ.mɪt\. climats is at rank #20,960, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kli.ma\.

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 54574, this pair ranks #133,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of climate vs climats

Shared letters: acilmt. Private to "climate": e. Private to "climats": s.

"climate" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "climats" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • climate ← cclimate · cilmate · cliamte · climaet · climatte · climmate · climtae · cllimate
  • climats ← cclimats · cilmats · cliamts · climast · climatss · climatts · climmats · climtas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "climate" and "climats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "climate" is an adjective and "climats" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "climate" vs "climats" - which ranks higher?
"climats" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,960 in our French list, against #33,614 for "climate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "climate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "climats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "climate" and "climats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "climate vs climatisé". 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 #133,116 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