goussevsgoussesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,314
“gousse” frequency rank
#37,843
“gousses” frequency rank
79157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gousse gousses
Definition Fruit sec, dépourvu de cloison, à deux valves, garnies chacune d’une rangée de graines, et avec deux fentes de déhiscence (mot utilisé notamment pour les fruits des légumineuses). Pluriel de gousse.

Same sound, different letters: gousse vs gousses

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
gousse
7 ch
gousses

Same sound, different spelling - gousse / gousses

This is the hard kind. gousse and gousses are pronounced identically (\ɡus\) 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) - “gousse” sits inside “gousses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gousse is recorded at frequency rank #41,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡus\. gousses is at rank #37,843, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡus\.

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 79157, this pair ranks #23,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gousse vs gousses

Shared letters: egosu. Private to "gousse": -. Private to "gousses": -.

"gousse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "gousses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gousseggousse · gosuse · gouse · guosse · ogusse
  • goussesggousses · gosuses · gouses · gousess · goussess · goussse · guosses · ogusses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gousse" for "gousses" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɡus\), 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, "gousse" or "gousses"?
"gousses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,843 in our French list, against #41,314 for "gousse". 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 "gousse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gousses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gousse" and "gousses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gauss vs gousse". 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 #23,975 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