indésirable vs indésirables

Which to use

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

#29,396
“indésirable” frequency rank: #17,737
“indésirables” frequency rank: 47133
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	indésirable	indésirables
Definition	Que l’on ne peut pas désirer.	Pluriel de l’adjectif indésirable.

Same sound, different letters: indésirable vs indésirables

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

11 ch

indésirable

12 ch

indésirables

Same sound, different spelling - indésirable / indésirables

This is the hard kind. indésirable and indésirables are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.de.zi.ʁabl\) 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) - “indésirable” sits inside “indésirables”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indésirable is recorded at frequency rank #29,396, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.de.zi.ʁabl\. indésirables is at rank #17,737, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.de.zi.ʁabl\.

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 47133, this pair ranks #189,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indésirable vs indésirables

Shared letters: abdeilnrsé. Private to "indésirable": -. Private to "indésirables": -.

"indésirable" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCCV · "indésirables" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "indésirable" for "indésirables" ever safe?

No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.de.zi.ʁabl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Frequency check: "indésirable" vs "indésirables" - which ranks higher?

"indésirables" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,737 in our French list, against #29,396 for "indésirable". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "indésirable" / "indésirables". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

Full dictionary entry for "indésirable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "indésirables" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #189,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"indésirable" and "indésirables" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indéniables vs indésirables". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #189,304 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.