hébreuvshébreuxWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hébreu is a noun, hébreux is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hébreu” is a noun and “hébreux” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,068
“hébreu” frequency rank
#26,042
“hébreux” frequency rank
37110
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hébreu hébreux
Definition Langue sémitique, langue officielle d’Israël. Masculin pluriel d’hébreu.

Same sound, different letters: hébreu vs hébreux

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. hébreu runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against hébreux's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
hébreu
7 ch
hébreux

Homophone desk: hébreu vs hébreux

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: hébreu and hébreux carry the same recorded pronunciation, ^((h muet))\e.bʁø\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hébreu” sits inside “hébreux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hébreu is recorded at frequency rank #11,068, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\e.bʁø\. hébreux is at rank #26,042, tagged as anadj, pronounced ^((h muet))\e.bʁø\.

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 37110, this pair ranks #264,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hébreu vs hébreux

Shared letters: behrué. Private to "hébreu": -. Private to "hébreux": x.

"hébreu" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "hébreux" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hébreu" for "hébreux" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hébreu" is a noun and "hébreux" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hébreu" or "hébreux"?
"hébreu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,068 in our French list, against #26,042 for "hébreux". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"hébreu" and "hébreux" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hébreu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hébreux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hébreu" and "hébreux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hébreu vs hêtres". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #264,834 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