étriervsétriersWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,137
“étrier” frequency rank
#45,971
“étriers” frequency rank
83108
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étrier étriers
Definition Chacun des anneaux ovales, de fer ou d’autre métal, suspendus de chaque côté de la selle par une courroie appelée étrivière et qui servent à supporter le pied du cavalier. Pluriel de étrier.

Same sound, different letters: étrier vs étriers

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
étrier
7 ch
étriers

Homophone desk: étrier vs étriers

This is the hard kind. étrier and étriers are pronounced identically (\e.tʁi.je\) 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) - “étrier” sits inside “étriers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

étrier is recorded at frequency rank #37,137, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.tʁi.je\. étriers is at rank #45,971, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tʁi.je\.

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 83108, this pair ranks #15,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of étrier vs étriers

Shared letters: eirté. Private to "étrier": -. Private to "étriers": s.

"étrier" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "étriers" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "étrier" for "étriers" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.tʁi.je\), 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, "étrier" or "étriers"?
"étrier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,137 in our French list, against #45,971 for "étriers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "étrier" / "étriers". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "étrier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étriers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "étrier" and "étriers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs étrier". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #15,437 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