Which to use
“libraire” and “librairies” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,720
- “libraire” frequency rank
- #16,667
- “librairies” frequency rank
- 31387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | libraire | librairies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui ou celle qui fait le commerce des livres. | Pluriel de librairie. |
Where the eye mixes libraire and librairies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between libraire and librairies
A purely visual mix-up. libraire (\li.bʁɛʁ\) and librairies (\li.bʁe.ʁi\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
libraire is recorded at frequency rank #14,720, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.bʁɛʁ\. librairies is at rank #16,667, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.bʁe.ʁi\.
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 31387, this pair ranks #304,123 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of libraire vs librairies
Shared letters: abeilr. Private to "libraire": -. Private to "librairies": s.
"libraire" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV · "librairies" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- libraire ← ilbraire · lbiraire · libarire · libbraire · libraier · librairre · librarie · libriare
- librairies ← ilbrairies · lbirairies · libariries · libbrairies · libraiires · libraireis · librairiess · librairise
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "libraire" for "librairies" ever safe?
Frequency check: "libraire" vs "librairies" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "libraire" and "librairies" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "libraire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "librairies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,123 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "libraire" and "librairies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "libraire vs library". 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 #304,123 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.