léopardvsléopardsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,247
“léopard” frequency rank
#42,993
“léopards” frequency rank
61240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature léopard léopards
Definition Espèce de grand félin d’Afrique et d’Asie à peau tachetée, aussi appelé panthère (Panthera pardus). Ce mot est plus spécialement utilisé dans le cas des panthères africaines. Pluriel de léopard.

Same sound, different letters: léopard vs léopards

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
léopard
8 ch
léopards

Homophone desk: léopard vs léopards

This is the hard kind. léopard and léopards are pronounced identically (\le.ɔ.paʁ\) 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) - “léopard” sits inside “léopards”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61240, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

léopard is recorded at frequency rank #18,247, classified as anoun, pronounced \le.ɔ.paʁ\. léopards is at rank #42,993, tagged as anoun, pronounced \le.ɔ.paʁ\.

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 61240, this pair ranks #93,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of léopard vs léopards

Shared letters: adlopré. Private to "léopard": -. Private to "léopards": s.

"léopard" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "léopards" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "léopard" and "léopards" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\le.ɔ.paʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "léopard" vs "léopards" - which ranks higher?
"léopard" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,247 in our French list, against #42,993 for "léopards". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"léopard" and "léopards" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "léopard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "léopards" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,322 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "léopard" and "léopards" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "léopards vs lézards". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #93,322 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