greffervsgriffesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: greffer is a verb, griffes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“greffer” is a verb and “griffes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,576
“greffer” frequency rank
#12,588
“griffes” frequency rank
41164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature greffer griffes
Definition Faire une greffe. Pluriel de griffe.

Where the eye mixes greffer and griffes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
greffer
7 ch
griffes

Visual trap between greffer and griffes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: greffer is \ɡʁe.fe\ while griffes is \ɡʁif\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

greffer is recorded at frequency rank #28,576, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡʁe.fe\. griffes is at rank #12,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁif\.

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 41164, this pair ranks #235,141 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of greffer vs griffes

Shared letters: efgr. Private to "greffer": -. Private to "griffes": is.

"greffer" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "griffes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • greffergerffer · ggreffer · grefefr · grefer · grefferr · greffre · grfefer · grreffer
  • griffesggriffes · girffes · grfifes · grifefs · grifes · griffess · griffse · grriffes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "greffer" and "griffes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "greffer" is a verb and "griffes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "greffer" or "griffes"?
"griffes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,588 in our French list, against #28,576 for "greffer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "greffer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "griffes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,141 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "greffer" and "griffes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "greffer vs greffon". 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 #235,141 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