dépositaire vs dépositaires

Which to use

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

#23,190
“dépositaire” frequency rank: #40,230
“dépositaires” frequency rank: 63420
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	dépositaire	dépositaires
Definition	Personne ou institution à qui on confie un dépôt.	Pluriel de dépositaire.

Same sound, different letters: dépositaire vs dépositaires

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. dépositaire runs 11 letters (CVCVCVCVVCV) against dépositaires's 12 (CVCVCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch

dépositaire

12 ch

dépositaires

Same sound, different spelling - dépositaire / dépositaires

This is the hard kind. dépositaire and dépositaires are pronounced identically (\de.pɔ.zi.tɛʁ\) 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) - “dépositaire” sits inside “dépositaires”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dépositaire is recorded at frequency rank #23,190, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.pɔ.zi.tɛʁ\. dépositaires is at rank #40,230, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.pɔ.zi.tɛʁ\.

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 63420, this pair ranks #82,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dépositaire vs dépositaires

Shared letters: adeioprsté. Private to "dépositaire": -. Private to "dépositaires": -.

"dépositaire" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVCV · "dépositaires" · 12 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dépositaire" and "dépositaires" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (\de.pɔ.zi.tɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "dépositaire" or "dépositaires"?

"dépositaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,190 in our French list, against #40,230 for "dépositaires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "dépositaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "dépositaires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #82,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #82,050 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.