leadervsleadersTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,832
“leader” frequency rank
#7,338
“leaders” frequency rank
10170
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leader leaders
Definition Personne qui se trouve à la tête d’un parti politique ou d’un groupe quelconque. Pluriel de leader.

Same sound, different letters: leader vs leaders

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. leader runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against leaders's 7 (CVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
leader
7 ch
leaders

Same sound, different spelling - leader / leaders

This is the hard kind. leader and leaders are pronounced identically (\li.dœʁ\) 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) - “leader” sits inside “leaders”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leader is recorded at frequency rank #2,832, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.dœʁ\. leaders is at rank #7,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.dœʁ\.

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 10170, this pair ranks #413,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leader vs leaders

Shared letters: adelr. Private to "leader": -. Private to "leaders": s.

"leader" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "leaders" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leader ← elader · laeder · leadder · leaderr · leadre · leaedr · ledaer · lleader
  • leaders ← eladers · laeders · leadders · leaderrs · leaderss · leadesr · leadres · leaedrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leader" and "leaders" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\li.dœʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "leader" vs "leaders" - which ranks higher?
"leader" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,832 in our French list, against #7,338 for "leaders". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "leader" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leaders" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leader" and "leaders" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "later vs leader". 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 #413,974 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