Which to use
“grotesque” and “grotesques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,143
- “grotesque” frequency rank
- #35,070
- “grotesques” frequency rank
- 51213
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grotesque | grotesques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Très orné, voire ampoulé, à la manière des fresques romaines découvertes à la Renaissance. | Pluriel de grotesque. |
Same sound, different letters: grotesque vs grotesques
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. grotesque runs 9 letters (CCVCVCCVV) against grotesques's 10 (CCVCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - grotesque / grotesques
This is the hard kind. grotesque and grotesques are pronounced identically (\ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “grotesque” sits inside “grotesques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grotesque is recorded at frequency rank #16,143, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\. grotesques is at rank #35,070, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁɔ.tɛsk\.
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 51213, this pair ranks #156,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grotesque vs grotesques
Shared letters: egoqrstu. Private to "grotesque": -. Private to "grotesques": -.
"grotesque" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVV · "grotesques" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- grotesque ← ggrotesque · gortesque · groetsque · groteqsue · grotesqeu · grotesqque · grotessque · grotesuqe
- grotesques ← ggrotesques · gortesques · groetsques · groteqsues · grotesqeus · grotesqques · grotesquess · grotesquse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grotesque" for "grotesques" ever safe?
Which is more common, "grotesque" or "grotesques"?
What to do next
"grotesque" and "grotesques" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "grotesque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grotesques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #156,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #156,722 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.