Which to use
“innocent” and “innocents” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,103
- “innocent” frequency rank
- #9,500
- “innocents” frequency rank
- 15603
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | innocent | innocents |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui n’est pas coupable. | Masculin pluriel de innocent. |
Same sound, different letters: innocent vs innocents
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. innocent runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCC) against innocents's 9 (VCCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - innocent / innocents
This is the hard kind. innocent and innocents are pronounced identically (\i.nɔ.sɑ̃\) 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) - “innocent” sits inside “innocents”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
innocent is recorded at frequency rank #6,103, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.nɔ.sɑ̃\. innocents is at rank #9,500, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.nɔ.sɑ̃\.
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 15603, this pair ranks #391,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of innocent vs innocents
Shared letters: ceinot. Private to "innocent": -. Private to "innocents": s.
"innocent" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC · "innocents" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "innocent" and "innocents" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "innocent" vs "innocents" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "innocent" / "innocents". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "innocent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "innocents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "innocent" and "innocents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "innocentes vs innocents". 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 #391,642 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.