grossvsgrossesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#22,579
“gross” frequency rank
#2,367
“grosses” frequency rank
24946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gross grosses
Definition Variante orthographique de groß. Féminin pluriel de gros.

Where the eye mixes gross and grosses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gross runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against grosses's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
gross
7 ch
grosses

Visual trap between gross and grosses

A purely visual mix-up. gross (\ɡʀoːs\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “gross” sits inside “grosses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gross is recorded at frequency rank #22,579, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʀoːs\. 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 24946, this pair ranks #343,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gross vs grosses

Shared letters: gors. Private to "gross": -. Private to "grosses": e.

"gross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "grosses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gross ← ggross · gorss · grross · grsos · rgoss
  • grosses ← ggrosses · gorsses · grosess · grossess · grossse · grrosses · grsoses · rgosses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gross" for "grosses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʀoːs\ versus \ɡʁos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gross" or "grosses"?
"grosses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,367 in our French list, against #22,579 for "gross". 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 "gross" 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 #343,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gross" and "grosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gross vs grow". 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 #343,648 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