divorcéevsdivorcésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#27,408
“divorcée” frequency rank
#24,938
“divorcés” frequency rank
52346
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature divorcée divorcés
Definition Femme qui a divorcé. Pluriel de divorcé.

Same sound, different letters: divorcée vs divorcés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. divorcée (CVCVCCVV) and divorcés (CVCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
divorcée
8 ch
divorcés

Homophone desk: divorcée vs divorcés

This is the hard kind. divorcée and divorcés are pronounced identically (\di.vɔʁ.se\) 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 a single letter - e in “divorcée” becomes s in “divorcés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

divorcée is recorded at frequency rank #27,408, classified as anoun, pronounced \di.vɔʁ.se\. divorcés is at rank #24,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced \di.vɔʁ.se\.

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 52346, this pair ranks #148,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of divorcée vs divorcés

Shared letters: cdiorvé. Private to "divorcée": e. Private to "divorcés": s.

"divorcée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "divorcés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "divorcée" and "divorcés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\di.vɔʁ.se\), 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 "divorcée" or "divorcés" show up more?
"divorcés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,938 in our French list, against #27,408 for "divorcée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "divorcée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "divorcés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "divorcée" and "divorcés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "divorcée vs divorcent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #148,374 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