Which to use
“influence” and “influences” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,525
- “influence” frequency rank
- #7,978
- “influences” frequency rank
- 9503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | influence | influences |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action d’une personne, d’une circonstance ou d’une chose qui influe sur une autre. | Pluriel de influence. |
Same sound, different letters: influence vs influences
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. influence runs 9 letters (VCCCVVCCV) against influences's 10 (VCCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - influence / influences
This is the hard kind. influence and influences are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.fly.ɑ̃s\) 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) - “influence” sits inside “influences”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
influence is recorded at frequency rank #1,525, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.fly.ɑ̃s\. influences is at rank #7,978, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.fly.ɑ̃s\.
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 9503, this pair ranks #416,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of influence vs influences
Shared letters: cefilnu. Private to "influence": -. Private to "influences": s.
"influence" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVVCCV · "influences" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- influence ← ifnluence · inffluence · infleunce · inflluence · influecne · influencce · influenec · influennce
- influences ← ifnluences · inffluences · infleunces · inflluences · influecnes · influencces · influencess · influencse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "influence" for "influences" ever safe?
Which is more common, "influence" or "influences"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "influence" / "influences". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "influence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "influences" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "influence" and "influences" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "influencées vs influences". 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 #416,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.