Which to use
“dauphin” and “dauphins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,372
- “dauphin” frequency rank
- #14,442
- “dauphins” frequency rank
- 22814
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dauphin | dauphins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui concerne les éditions réalisées pour Louis de France, fils de Louis XIV. | Masculin pluriel de dauphin. |
Same sound, different letters: dauphin vs dauphins
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. dauphin runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against dauphins's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - dauphin / dauphins
This is the hard kind. dauphin and dauphins are pronounced identically (\do.fɛ̃\) 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) - “dauphin” sits inside “dauphins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dauphin is recorded at frequency rank #8,372, classified as anadj, pronounced \do.fɛ̃\. dauphins is at rank #14,442, tagged as anadj, pronounced \do.fɛ̃\.
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 22814, this pair ranks #356,022 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dauphin vs dauphins
Shared letters: adhinpu. Private to "dauphin": -. Private to "dauphins": s.
"dauphin" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "dauphins" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dauphin" for "dauphins" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dauphin" vs "dauphins" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"dauphin" and "dauphins" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "dauphin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dauphins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #356,022 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dauphin" and "dauphins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dauphinois vs dauphins". 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 #356,022 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.