Which to use
“hyène” and “hyènes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,350
- “hyène” frequency rank
- #38,844
- “hyènes” frequency rank
- 77194
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hyène | hyènes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mammifère carnassier digitigrade d’Asie et d’Afrique au pelage gris tacheté de brun. Précédée de de ou de la, l’élision est facultative, on peut donc aussi bien dire la hyène ou de hyène, que l’hyène ou d’hyène. | Pluriel de hyène. |
Same sound, different letters: hyène vs hyènes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. hyène runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against hyènes's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - hyène and hyènes
This is the hard kind. hyène and hyènes are pronounced identically (^((h aspiré))\jɛn\) 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) - “hyène” sits inside “hyènes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hyène is recorded at frequency rank #38,350, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\jɛn\. hyènes is at rank #38,844, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\jɛn\.
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 77194, this pair ranks #29,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hyène vs hyènes
Shared letters: ehnyè. Private to "hyène": -. Private to "hyènes": s.
"hyène" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "hyènes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hyène" for "hyènes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "hyène" or "hyènes"?
After this comparison
"hyène" and "hyènes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "hyène" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hyènes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hyène" and "hyènes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Haynes vs hyènes". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #29,091 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.