Which to use
“complication” and “complications” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,523
- “complication” frequency rank
- #10,845
- “complications” frequency rank
- 35368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | complication | complications |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assemblage, concours d’éléments, de circonstances ou d’incidents multiples susceptibles de créer des embarras, ou d’augmenter la difficulté ou le danger. | Pluriel de complication. |
Same sound, different letters: complication vs complications
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - complication / complications
This is the hard kind. complication and complications are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.pli.ka.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) - “complication” sits inside “complications”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
complication is recorded at frequency rank #24,523, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.pli.ka.sjɔ̃\. complications is at rank #10,845, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.pli.ka.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 35368, this pair ranks #277,221 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of complication vs complications
Shared letters: acilmnopt. Private to "complication": -. Private to "complications": s.
"complication" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCVCVCVVC · "complications" · 13 letters · shape CVCCCVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- complication ← ccomplication · cmoplication · comlpication · commplication · compilcation · complciation · compliaction · complicaiton
- complications ← ccomplications · cmoplications · comlpications · commplications · compilcations · complciations · compliactions · complicaitons
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "complication" and "complications" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "complication" or "complications"?
After this comparison
"complication" and "complications" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "complication" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "complications" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #277,221 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "complication" and "complications" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compilations vs complications". 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 #277,221 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.