Which to use
“fantôme” and “fantômes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,825
- “fantôme” frequency rank
- #9,162
- “fantômes” frequency rank
- 15987
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fantôme | fantômes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Apparition d’un défunt sous l’aspect qu’il avait de son vivant ou sous une autre forme, notamment sous un drap blanchâtre. | Pluriel de fantôme. |
Same sound, different letters: fantôme vs fantômes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - fantôme / fantômes
This is the hard kind. fantôme and fantômes are pronounced identically (\fɑ̃.tom\) 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) - “fantôme” sits inside “fantômes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fantôme is recorded at frequency rank #6,825, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃.tom\. fantômes is at rank #9,162, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃.tom\.
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 15987, this pair ranks #389,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fantôme vs fantômes
Shared letters: aefmntô. Private to "fantôme": -. Private to "fantômes": s.
"fantôme" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "fantômes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fantôme" for "fantômes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fantôme" or "fantômes"?
What to do next
"fantôme" and "fantômes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "fantôme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fantômes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fantôme" and "fantômes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fantasmes vs fantômes". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #389,919 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.