grassesvsgrossesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,764
“grasses” frequency rank
#2,367
“grosses” frequency rank
21131
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grasses grosses
Definition Féminin pluriel de gras. Féminin pluriel de gros.

Where the eye mixes grasses and grosses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. grasses and grosses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
grasses
7 ch
grosses

Look-alike desk: grasses vs grosses

A purely visual mix-up. grasses (\ɡʁas\) and grosses (\ɡʁos\) 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 a single letter - a in “grasses” becomes o in “grosses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21131, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grasses is recorded at frequency rank #18,764, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁas\. grosses is at rank #2,367, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁos\.

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 21131, this pair ranks #364,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grasses vs grosses

Shared letters: egrs. Private to "grasses": a. Private to "grosses": o.

"grasses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "grosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grasses ← garsses · ggrasses · grasess · grassess · grassse · grrasses · grsases · rgasses
  • grosses ← ggrosses · gorsses · grosess · grossess · grossse · grrosses · grsoses · rgosses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grasses" and "grosses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁas\ versus \ɡʁos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grasses" or "grosses"?
"grosses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,367 in our French list, against #18,764 for "grasses". 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 "grasses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #364,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grasses" and "grosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graisser vs grasses". 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 #364,694 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