gorillavsgorillesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,682
“gorilla” frequency rank
#27,826
“gorilles” frequency rank
77508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gorilla gorilles
Definition Gorille. Pluriel de gorille.

Where the eye mixes gorilla and gorilles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
gorilla
8 ch
gorilles

Look-alike desk: gorilla vs gorilles

A purely visual mix-up. gorilla (\ɡəˈɹɪl.ə\) and gorilles (\ɡɔ.ʁij\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gorilla is recorded at frequency rank #49,682, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡəˈɹɪl.ə\. gorilles is at rank #27,826, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔ.ʁij\.

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 77508, this pair ranks #28,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gorilla vs gorilles

Shared letters: gilor. Private to "gorilla": a. Private to "gorilles": es.

"gorilla" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "gorilles" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gorillaggorilla · goirlla · gorila · gorilal · gorlila · gorrilla · groilla · ogrilla
  • gorillesggorilles · goirlles · gorilels · goriles · gorilless · gorillse · gorliles · gorrilles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gorilla" and "gorilles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡəˈɹɪl.ə\ versus \ɡɔ.ʁij\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gorilla" vs "gorilles" - which ranks higher?
"gorilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,826 in our French list, against #49,682 for "gorilla". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gorilla" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gorilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gorilla" and "gorilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Godzilla vs gorilla". 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 #28,166 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