fièvrevsfièvresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,248
“fièvre” frequency rank
#37,336
“fièvres” frequency rank
42584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fièvre fièvres
Definition État d'un animal (y compris un être humain) dont la température corporelle dépasse sa valeur normale. Pluriel de fièvre.

Same sound, different letters: fièvre vs fièvres

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. fièvre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against fièvres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fièvre
7 ch
fièvres

Ear matches; page differs - fièvre and fièvres

This is the hard kind. fièvre and fièvres are pronounced identically (\fjɛvʁ\) 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) - “fièvre” sits inside “fièvres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fièvre is recorded at frequency rank #5,248, classified as anoun, pronounced \fjɛvʁ\. fièvres is at rank #37,336, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fjɛvʁ\.

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 42584, this pair ranks #224,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fièvre vs fièvres

Shared letters: efirvè. Private to "fièvre": -. Private to "fièvres": s.

"fièvre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "fièvres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fièvre" and "fièvres" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fjɛvʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "fièvre" or "fièvres" show up more?
"fièvre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,248 in our French list, against #37,336 for "fièvres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fièvre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fièvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fièvre" and "fièvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fières vs fièvres". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #224,501 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