Which to use
“insecte” and “insectes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,985
- “insecte” frequency rank
- #5,354
- “insectes” frequency rank
- 17339
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | insecte | insectes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petit animal invertébré, arthropode dont l'adulte est constitué de trois parties (tête, thorax, abdomen) protégées par un exosquelette de chitine et possédant au moins une paire d’yeux composés, une paire d’antennes, trois paires de pattes articulées et deux paires d’ailes parfois atrophiées. | Pluriel de insecte. |
Same sound, different letters: insecte vs insectes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Homophone desk: insecte vs insectes
This is the hard kind. insecte and insectes are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.sɛkt\) 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) - “insecte” sits inside “insectes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
insecte is recorded at frequency rank #11,985, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.sɛkt\. insectes is at rank #5,354, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.sɛkt\.
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 17339, this pair ranks #383,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of insecte vs insectes
Shared letters: ceinst. Private to "insecte": -. Private to "insectes": -.
"insecte" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "insectes" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "insecte" for "insectes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "insecte" vs "insectes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "insecte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "insectes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "insecte" and "insectes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "insecte vs insert". 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 #383,665 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.