finalitévsfinalitésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,385
“finalité” frequency rank
#38,808
“finalités” frequency rank
52193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature finalité finalités
Definition But, résultat attendu. Pluriel de finalité.

Same sound, different letters: finalité vs finalités

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. finalité runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against finalités's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
finalité
9 ch
finalités

Homophone desk: finalité vs finalités

This is the hard kind. finalité and finalités are pronounced identically (\fi.na.li.te\) 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) - “finalité” sits inside “finalités”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

finalité is recorded at frequency rank #13,385, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.na.li.te\. finalités is at rank #38,808, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fi.na.li.te\.

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 52193, this pair ranks #149,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of finalité vs finalités

Shared letters: afilnté. Private to "finalité": -. Private to "finalités": s.

"finalité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "finalités" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "finalité" and "finalités" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fi.na.li.te\), 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, "finalité" or "finalités"?
"finalité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,385 in our French list, against #38,808 for "finalités". 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 "finalité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "finalités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "finalité" and "finalités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "finalisée vs finalités". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #149,439 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