Which to use
“isle” and “isles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,988
- “isle” frequency rank
- #36,912
- “isles” frequency rank
- 48900
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | isle | isles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Île. | Pluriel de isle. |
Same sound, different letters: isle vs isles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. isle runs 4 letters (VCCV) against isles's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - isle and isles
This is the hard kind. isle and isles are pronounced identically (\il\) 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) - “isle” sits inside “isles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
isle is recorded at frequency rank #11,988, classified as anoun, pronounced \il\. isles is at rank #36,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced \il\.
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 48900, this pair ranks #175,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of isle vs isles
Shared letters: eils. Private to "isle": -. Private to "isles": -.
"isle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "isles" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "isle" and "isles" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "isle" vs "isles" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "isle" / "isles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "isle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "isles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #175,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "isle" and "isles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isles vs ives". 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 #175,140 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.