déchirurevsdéchiruresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,919
“déchirure” frequency rank
#46,125
“déchirures” frequency rank
68044
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déchirure déchirures
Definition Rupture faite en déchirant, en se déchirant. Pluriel de déchirure.

Same sound, different letters: déchirure vs déchirures

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. déchirure runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against déchirures's 10 (CVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
déchirure
10 ch
déchirures

Homophone desk: déchirure vs déchirures

This is the hard kind. déchirure and déchirures are pronounced identically (\de.ʃi.ʁyʁ\) 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) - “déchirure” sits inside “déchirures”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68044, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déchirure is recorded at frequency rank #21,919, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʃi.ʁyʁ\. déchirures is at rank #46,125, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ʃi.ʁyʁ\.

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 68044, this pair ranks #60,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déchirure vs déchirures

Shared letters: cdehirué. Private to "déchirure": -. Private to "déchirures": s.

"déchirure" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "déchirures" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déchirure" for "déchirures" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.ʃi.ʁyʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "déchirure" or "déchirures" show up more?
"déchirure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,919 in our French list, against #46,125 for "déchirures". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déchirure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déchirures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déchirure" and "déchirures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déchirée vs déchirure". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #60,840 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