griffevsgriffesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,722
“griffe” frequency rank
#12,588
“griffes” frequency rank
30310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature griffe griffes
Definition Ongle crochu, pointu et mobile de certains animaux, tels que le tigre, le lion, le chat, etc., ou d’un oiseau de proie, comme l’épervier, le faucon, etc. Pluriel de griffe.

Same sound, different letters: griffe vs griffes

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

6 ch
griffe
7 ch
griffes

Homophone desk: griffe vs griffes

This is the hard kind. griffe and griffes are pronounced identically (\ɡʁif\) 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) - “griffe” sits inside “griffes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

griffe is recorded at frequency rank #17,722, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁif\. 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 30310, this pair ranks #311,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of griffe vs griffes

Shared letters: efgir. Private to "griffe": -. Private to "griffes": s.

"griffe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "griffes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • griffeggriffe · girffe · grfife · grife · grifef · grriffe · rgiffe
  • griffesggriffes · girffes · grfifes · grifefs · grifes · griffess · griffse · grriffes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "griffe" and "griffes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɡʁif\), 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, "griffe" or "griffes"?
"griffes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,588 in our French list, against #17,722 for "griffe". 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 "griffe" 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 #311,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "griffe" and "griffes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graff vs griffe". 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 #311,215 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