hospitaliervshospitaliersWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,720
“hospitalier” frequency rank
#14,950
“hospitaliers” frequency rank
23670
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hospitalier hospitaliers
Definition Relatif aux hôpitaux et aux hospices. Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif hospitalier.

Same sound, different letters: hospitalier vs hospitaliers

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. hospitalier runs 11 letters (CVCCVCVCVVC) against hospitaliers's 12 (CVCCVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
hospitalier
12 ch
hospitaliers

Same sound, different spelling - hospitalier / hospitaliers

This is the hard kind. hospitalier and hospitaliers are pronounced identically (^((h muet))\ɔs.pi.ta.lje\) 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) - “hospitalier” sits inside “hospitaliers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23670, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hospitalier is recorded at frequency rank #8,720, classified as anadj, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔs.pi.ta.lje\. hospitaliers is at rank #14,950, tagged as anadj, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔs.pi.ta.lje\.

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 23670, this pair ranks #351,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hospitalier vs hospitaliers

Shared letters: aehiloprst. Private to "hospitalier": -. Private to "hospitaliers": -.

"hospitalier" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC  ·  "hospitaliers" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hospitalier ← hhospitalier · hopsitalier · hosiptalier · hospiatlier · hospitailer · hospitaleir · hospitalierr · hospitalire
  • hospitaliers ← hhospitaliers · hopsitaliers · hosiptaliers · hospiatliers · hospitailers · hospitaleirs · hospitalierrs · hospitalierss

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hospitalier" for "hospitaliers" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (^((h muet))\ɔs.pi.ta.lje\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "hospitalier" or "hospitaliers" show up more?
"hospitalier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,720 in our French list, against #14,950 for "hospitaliers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hospitalier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hospitaliers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #351,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hospitalier" and "hospitaliers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hospitalières vs hospitaliers". 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 #351,114 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