kingsvskungWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,300
“kings” frequency rank
#21,985
“kung” frequency rank
36285
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kings kung
Definition Pluriel de king. Roi.

Where the eye mixes kings and kung

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. kings runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against kung's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
kings
4 ch
kung

Visual trap between kings and kung

A purely visual mix-up. kings (\kiŋ\) and kung (\kɵŋ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36285, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kings is recorded at frequency rank #14,300, classified as anoun, pronounced \kiŋ\. kung is at rank #21,985, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɵŋ\.

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 36285, this pair ranks #270,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kings vs kung

Shared letters: gkn. Private to "kings": is. Private to "kung": u.

"kings" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "kung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kings ← ikngs · kigns · kinggs · kingss · kinngs · kinsg · kkings · knigs
  • kung ← kkung · knug · kugn · kungg · kunng · ukng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kings" for "kung" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kiŋ\ versus \kɵŋ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kings" vs "kung" - which ranks higher?
"kings" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,300 in our French list, against #21,985 for "kung". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "kings" and "kung" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kings" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kings" and "kung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kana vs kung". 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 #270,670 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