Which to use
“icône” and “icônes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,173
- “icône” frequency rank
- #19,311
- “icônes” frequency rank
- 29484
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | icône | icônes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Image sainte, le plus souvent peinte sur bois, qui est vénérée dans l'Église d'Orient. | Pluriel de icône. |
Same sound, different letters: icône vs icônes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. icône runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against icônes's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - icône and icônes
This is the hard kind. icône and icônes are pronounced identically (\i.kon\) 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) - “icône” sits inside “icônes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
icône is recorded at frequency rank #10,173, classified as anoun, pronounced \i.kon\. icônes is at rank #19,311, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.kon\.
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 29484, this pair ranks #316,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of icône vs icônes
Shared letters: ceinô. Private to "icône": -. Private to "icônes": s.
"icône" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "icônes" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "icône" and "icônes" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "icône" or "icônes" show up more?
What to do next
"icône" and "icônes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "icône" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "icônes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #316,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "icône" and "icônes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "icônes vs inondés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #316,400 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.