Which to use
“hélice” and “hélices” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,161
- “hélice” frequency rank
- #31,543
- “hélices” frequency rank
- 51704
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hélice | hélices |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ligne tracée en forme de vis autour d’un cylindre. | Pluriel de hélice. |
Same sound, different letters: hélice vs hélices
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. hélice runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against hélices's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - hélice / hélices
This is the hard kind. hélice and hélices are pronounced identically (\e.lis\) 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) - “hélice” sits inside “hélices”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51704, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hélice is recorded at frequency rank #20,161, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.lis\. hélices is at rank #31,543, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.lis\.
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 51704, this pair ranks #153,053 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hélice vs hélices
Shared letters: cehilé. Private to "hélice": -. Private to "hélices": s.
"hélice" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "hélices" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hélice" and "hélices" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "hélice" vs "hélices" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "hélice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hélices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,053 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hélice" and "hélices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hélices vs hésites". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #153,053 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.