Which to use
“errant” and “errants” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,311
- “errant” frequency rank
- #28,542
- “errants” frequency rank
- 49853
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | errant | errants |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui ne cesse de voyager ; vagabond. | Masculin pluriel de errant. |
Same sound, different letters: errant vs errants
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - errant and errants
This is the hard kind. errant and errants are pronounced identically (\ɛ.ʁɑ̃\) 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) - “errant” sits inside “errants”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
errant is recorded at frequency rank #21,311, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ.ʁɑ̃\. errants is at rank #28,542, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ.ʁɑ̃\.
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 49853, this pair ranks #167,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of errant vs errants
Shared letters: aenrt. Private to "errant": -. Private to "errants": s.
"errant" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "errants" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "errant" for "errants" ever safe?
Frequency check: "errant" vs "errants" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "errant" / "errants". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "errant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "errants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #167,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "errant" and "errants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "errants vs errent". 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 #167,367 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.