importancevsimportantsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: importance is a noun, importants is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“importance” is a noun and “importants” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,182
“importance” frequency rank
#1,870
“importants” frequency rank
3052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature importance importants
Definition Ce qui fait qu’une chose est d’un grand intérêt, est considérable par elle-même, ou par les circonstances qui l’accompagnent, ou par les suites qu’elle peut avoir. Masculin pluriel de important.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set importance and importants apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
importance
10 ch
importants

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: importance is \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃s\ while importants is \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

importance is recorded at frequency rank #1,182, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃s\. importants is at rank #1,870, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃\.

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 3052, this pair ranks #434,902 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of importance vs importants

Shared letters: aimnoprt. Private to "importance": ce. Private to "importants": s.

"importance" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV  ·  "importants" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • importanceimmportance · imoprtance · imporatnce · imporrtance · importacne · importancce · importanec · importannce
  • importantsimmportants · imoprtants · imporatnts · imporrtants · importannts · importanst · importantss · importantts

Frequency comparison

importance#1,182
importants#1,870

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "importance" and "importants" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "importance" is a noun and "importants" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "importance" or "importants"?
"importance" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,182 in our French list, against #1,870 for "importants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering importance vs importants

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “importance”; for an adjective, it's “importants”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “importance” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list