Which to use
“contraint” and “contraints” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,540
- “contraint” frequency rank
- #12,750
- “contraints” frequency rank
- 18290
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contraint | contraints |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est gêné, forcé. | Masculin pluriel de contraint. |
Same sound, different letters: contraint vs contraints
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.
Homophone desk: contraint vs contraints
This is the hard kind. contraint and contraints are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “contraint” sits inside “contraints”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contraint is recorded at frequency rank #5,540, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃\. contraints is at rank #12,750, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃\.
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 18290, this pair ranks #379,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of contraint vs contraints
Shared letters: acinort. Private to "contraint": -. Private to "contraints": s.
"contraint" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVVCC · "contraints" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- contraint ← ccontraint · cnotraint · conntraint · conrtaint · contarint · contrainnt · contraintt · contraitn
- contraints ← ccontraints · cnotraints · conntraints · conrtaints · contarints · contrainnts · contrainst · contraintss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "contraint" and "contraints" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "contraint" or "contraints"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "contraint" / "contraints". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "contraint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contraints" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #379,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contraint" and "contraints" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contant vs contraint". 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 #379,090 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.