Which to use
“grief” is an adjective and “griefs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,185
- “grief” frequency rank
- #23,880
- “griefs” frequency rank
- 52065
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grief | griefs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est grave, accablant. | Pluriel de grief. |
Same sound, different letters: grief vs griefs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. grief runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against griefs's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - grief and griefs
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: grief and griefs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɡʁi.jɛf\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “grief” sits inside “griefs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grief is recorded at frequency rank #28,185, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁi.jɛf\. griefs is at rank #23,880, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁi.jɛf\.
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 52065, this pair ranks #150,421 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grief vs griefs
Shared letters: efgir. Private to "grief": -. Private to "griefs": s.
"grief" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "griefs" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grief" for "griefs" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "grief" or "griefs" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "grief" / "griefs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "grief" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "griefs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #150,421 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grief" and "griefs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grief vs grip". 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 #150,421 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.