Which to use
“impasse” and “impasses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,113
- “impasse” frequency rank
- #42,937
- “impasses” frequency rank
- 51050
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impasse | impasses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Voie sans issue, cul-de-sac. | Pluriel de impasse. |
Where the eye mixes impasse and impasses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: impasse vs impasses
A purely visual mix-up. impasse (\ɛ̃.pɑs\) and impasses (\ɛ̃.pas\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “impasse” sits inside “impasses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impasse is recorded at frequency rank #8,113, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɑs\. impasses is at rank #42,937, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.pas\.
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 51050, this pair ranks #157,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of impasse vs impasses
Shared letters: aeimps. Private to "impasse": -. Private to "impasses": -.
"impasse" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "impasses" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "impasse" and "impasses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "impasse" or "impasses" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "impasse" and "impasses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "impasse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "impasses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #157,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impasse" and "impasses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impactés vs impasses". 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 #157,975 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.