Which to use
“enzyme” and “enzymes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,428
- “enzyme” frequency rank
- #24,209
- “enzymes” frequency rank
- 51637
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enzyme | enzymes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Molécule biologique, généralement une protéine (parfois un ARN, appelé ribozyme), qui catalyse une réaction biochimique spécifique, transformant un ou plusieurs substrats en un ou plusieurs produits. | Pluriel de enzyme. |
Same sound, different letters: enzyme vs enzymes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Homophone desk: enzyme vs enzymes
This is the hard kind. enzyme and enzymes are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.zim\) 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) - “enzyme” sits inside “enzymes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
enzyme is recorded at frequency rank #27,428, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.zim\. enzymes is at rank #24,209, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.zim\.
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 51637, this pair ranks #153,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of enzyme vs enzymes
Shared letters: emnyz. Private to "enzyme": -. Private to "enzymes": s.
"enzyme" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "enzymes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "enzyme" and "enzymes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "enzyme" vs "enzymes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"enzyme" and "enzymes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "enzyme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enzymes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enzyme" and "enzymes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enorme vs enzyme". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #153,541 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.