délicatvsdélicatsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,178
“délicat” frequency rank
#21,923
“délicats” frequency rank
29101
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délicat délicats
Definition Qui est d’une très grande finesse, très délié. Masculin pluriel de délicat.

Same sound, different letters: délicat vs délicats

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. délicat runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against délicats's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
délicat
8 ch
délicats

Homophone desk: délicat vs délicats

This is the hard kind. délicat and délicats are pronounced identically (\de.li.ka\) 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) - “délicat” sits inside “délicats”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29101, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délicat is recorded at frequency rank #7,178, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.li.ka\. délicats is at rank #21,923, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.li.ka\.

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 29101, this pair ranks #318,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of délicat vs délicats

Shared letters: acdilté. Private to "délicat": -. Private to "délicats": s.

"délicat" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "délicats" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "délicat" and "délicats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.li.ka\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "délicat" vs "délicats" - which ranks higher?
"délicat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,178 in our French list, against #21,923 for "délicats". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "délicat" / "délicats". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délicat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "délicats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #318,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délicat" and "délicats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délicats vs délirants". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #318,740 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