heroesvshéroïnesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,582
“heroes” frequency rank
#27,473
“héroïnes” frequency rank
50055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heroes héroïnes
Definition Pluriel de hero. Pluriel de héroïne (femme).

Where the eye mixes heroes and héroïnes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. heroes runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against héroïnes's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
heroes
8 ch
héroïnes

Why the eye confuses heroes with héroïnes

A purely visual mix-up. heroes (\ˈhɪɹ.oʊz\) and héroïnes (^((h muet))\e.ʁɔ.in\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heroes is recorded at frequency rank #22,582, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhɪɹ.oʊz\. héroïnes is at rank #27,473, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\e.ʁɔ.in\.

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 50055, this pair ranks #165,649 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of heroes vs héroïnes

Shared letters: ehors. Private to "heroes": -. Private to "héroïnes": néï.

"heroes" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "héroïnes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heroes ← ehroes · heores · hereos · heroess · herose · herroes · hheroes · hreoes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "heroes" for "héroïnes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈhɪɹ.oʊz\ versus ^((h muet))\e.ʁɔ.in\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "heroes" vs "héroïnes" - which ranks higher?
"heroes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,582 in our French list, against #27,473 for "héroïnes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "heroes" and "héroïnes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "heroes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "héroïnes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,649 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heroes" and "héroïnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heroes vs hêtres". 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 #165,649 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