Which to use
“gaffe” and “gaffes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,765
- “gaffe” frequency rank
- #40,285
- “gaffes” frequency rank
- 46050
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gaffe | gaffes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Perche munie d’un crochet à une extrémité pour attirer à soi quelque chose. | Pluriel de gaffe. |
Same sound, different letters: gaffe vs gaffes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. gaffe runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against gaffes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: gaffe vs gaffes
This is the hard kind. gaffe and gaffes are pronounced identically (\ɡaf\) 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) - “gaffe” sits inside “gaffes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gaffe is recorded at frequency rank #5,765, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡaf\. gaffes is at rank #40,285, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡaf\.
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 46050, this pair ranks #198,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gaffe vs gaffes
Shared letters: aefg. Private to "gaffe": -. Private to "gaffes": s.
"gaffe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "gaffes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "gaffe" and "gaffes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "gaffe" vs "gaffes" - which ranks higher?
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 "gaffe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gaffes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #198,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gaffe" and "gaffes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gaffes vs gifles". 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 #198,011 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.