floodvsflotsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#36,396
“flood” frequency rank
#15,882
“flots” frequency rank
52278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flood flots
Definition Envoi massif de messages sur une messagerie instantanée. Pluriel de flot.

Where the eye mixes flood and flots

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
flood
5 ch
flots

Look-alike desk: flood vs flots

A purely visual mix-up. flood (\flud\) and flots (\flo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flood is recorded at frequency rank #36,396, classified as anoun, pronounced \flud\. flots is at rank #15,882, tagged as anoun, pronounced \flo\.

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 52278, this pair ranks #148,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of flood vs flots

Shared letters: flo. Private to "flood": d. Private to "flots": st.

"flood" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "flots" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • floodfflood · fllood · flod · flodo · floodd · folod · lfood
  • flotsfflots · fllots · flost · flotss · flotts · fltos · folts · lfots

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "flood" for "flots" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\flud\ versus \flo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "flood" or "flots"?
"flots" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,882 in our French list, against #36,396 for "flood". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flood" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flood" and "flots" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flood vs flour". 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 #148,832 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