infrarougevsinfrarougesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,564
“infrarouge” frequency rank
#37,873
“infrarouges” frequency rank
57437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infrarouge infrarouges
Definition Dont la longueur d’onde est plus longue que celles de la lumière visible dans le spectre électromagnétique. Pluriel de infrarouge.

Same sound, different letters: infrarouge vs infrarouges

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. infrarouge runs 10 letters (VCCCVCVVCV) against infrarouges's 11 (VCCCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
infrarouge
11 ch
infrarouges

Same sound, different spelling - infrarouge / infrarouges

This is the hard kind. infrarouge and infrarouges are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.fʁa.ʁuʒ\) 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) - “infrarouge” sits inside “infrarouges”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infrarouge is recorded at frequency rank #19,564, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fʁa.ʁuʒ\. infrarouges is at rank #37,873, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fʁa.ʁuʒ\.

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 57437, this pair ranks #115,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of infrarouge vs infrarouges

Shared letters: aefginoru. Private to "infrarouge": -. Private to "infrarouges": s.

"infrarouge" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVCV  ·  "infrarouges" · 11 letters · shape VCCCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • infrarouge ← ifnrarouge · infarrouge · inffrarouge · infraoruge · infrarogue · infraroueg · infrarougge · infrarrouge
  • infrarouges ← ifnrarouges · infarrouges · inffrarouges · infraoruges · infrarogues · infrarouegs · infrarougess · infrarougges

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "infrarouge" for "infrarouges" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.fʁa.ʁuʒ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "infrarouge" or "infrarouges" show up more?
"infrarouge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,564 in our French list, against #37,873 for "infrarouges". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "infrarouge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "infrarouges" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #115,051 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list