Which to use
“décisive” and “décisives” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,535
- “décisive” frequency rank
- #14,021
- “décisives” frequency rank
- 22556
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décisive | décisives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de décisif. | Féminin pluriel de décisif. |
Same sound, different letters: décisive vs décisives
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. décisive runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against décisives's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - décisive and décisives
This is the hard kind. décisive and décisives are pronounced identically (\de.si.ziv\) 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) - “décisive” sits inside “décisives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décisive is recorded at frequency rank #8,535, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.si.ziv\. décisives is at rank #14,021, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.si.ziv\.
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 22556, this pair ranks #357,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of décisive vs décisives
Shared letters: cdeisvé. Private to "décisive": -. Private to "décisives": -.
"décisive" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "décisives" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "décisive" and "décisives" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "décisive" or "décisives" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "décisive" / "décisives". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "décisive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "décisives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #357,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décisive" and "décisives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décisifs vs décisives". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #357,353 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.