confidencevsconfidencesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,809
“confidence” frequency rank
#17,910
“confidences” frequency rank
41719
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature confidence confidences
Definition Communication d’un secret. Pluriel de confidence.

Same sound, different letters: confidence vs confidences

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. confidence runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCCV) against confidences's 11 (CVCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
confidence
11 ch
confidences

Ear matches; page differs - confidence and confidences

This is the hard kind. confidence and confidences are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.fi.dɑ̃s\) 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) - “confidence” sits inside “confidences”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

confidence is recorded at frequency rank #23,809, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.fi.dɑ̃s\. confidences is at rank #17,910, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.fi.dɑ̃s\.

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 41719, this pair ranks #231,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of confidence vs confidences

Shared letters: cdefino. Private to "confidence": -. Private to "confidences": s.

"confidence" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV  ·  "confidences" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • confidence ← cconfidence · cnofidence · cofnidence · confdience · conffidence · confiddence · confidecne · confidencce
  • confidences ← cconfidences · cnofidences · cofnidences · confdiences · conffidences · confiddences · confidecnes · confidencces

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "confidence" and "confidences" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃.fi.dɑ̃s\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "confidence" vs "confidences" - which ranks higher?
"confidences" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,910 in our French list, against #23,809 for "confidence". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "confidence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "confidences" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #231,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "confidence" and "confidences" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "confidence vs confidente". 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 #231,018 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