Which to use
“esprit” and “esprits” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #611
- “esprit” frequency rank
- #3,755
- “esprits” frequency rank
- 4366
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | esprit | esprits |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Substance incorporelle et immatérielle. | Pluriel de esprit. |
Same sound, different letters: esprit vs esprits
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. esprit runs 6 letters (VCCCVC) against esprits's 7 (VCCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - esprit and esprits
This is the hard kind. esprit and esprits are pronounced identically (\ɛs.pʁi\) 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) - “esprit” sits inside “esprits”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
esprit is recorded at frequency rank #611, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pʁi\. esprits is at rank #3,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pʁi\.
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 4366, this pair ranks #431,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of esprit vs esprits
Shared letters: eiprst. Private to "esprit": -. Private to "esprits": -.
"esprit" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC · "esprits" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "esprit" for "esprits" ever safe?
Frequency check: "esprit" vs "esprits" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"esprit" and "esprits" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "esprit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "esprits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #431,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "esprit" and "esprits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emplit vs esprit". 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 #431,781 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.