gorillesvsgrillesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,826
“gorilles” frequency rank
#13,606
“grilles” frequency rank
41432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gorilles grilles
Definition Pluriel de gorille. Pluriel de grille.

Where the eye mixes gorilles and grilles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
gorilles
7 ch
grilles

Look-alike desk: gorilles vs grilles

A purely visual mix-up. gorilles (\ɡɔ.ʁij\) and grilles (\ɡʁij\) 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 41432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gorilles is recorded at frequency rank #27,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔ.ʁij\. grilles is at rank #13,606, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁij\.

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 41432, this pair ranks #233,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gorilles vs grilles

Shared letters: egilrs. Private to "gorilles": o. Private to "grilles": -.

"gorilles" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "grilles" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gorillesggorilles · goirlles · gorilels · goriles · gorilless · gorillse · gorliles · gorrilles
  • grillesggrilles · girlles · grilels · griles · grilless · grillse · grliles · grrilles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gorilles" and "grilles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɔ.ʁij\ versus \ɡʁij\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "gorilles" or "grilles" show up more?
"grilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,606 in our French list, against #27,826 for "gorilles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "gorilles" and "grilles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gorilles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #233,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gorilles" and "grilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gorilla vs gorilles". 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 #233,142 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