Which to use
“madeleine” and “madeleines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,525
- “madeleine” frequency rank
- #49,777
- “madeleines” frequency rank
- 56302
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | madeleine | madeleines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de petit gâteau, qui était particulièrement fabriqué à Commercy. | Pluriel de madeleine. |
Same sound, different letters: madeleine vs madeleines
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. madeleine runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVCV) against madeleines's 10 (CVCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - madeleine / madeleines
This is the hard kind. madeleine and madeleines are pronounced identically (\mad.lɛn\) 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) - “madeleine” sits inside “madeleines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56302, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
madeleine is recorded at frequency rank #6,525, classified as anoun, pronounced \mad.lɛn\. madeleines is at rank #49,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mad.lɛn\.
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 56302, this pair ranks #121,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of madeleine vs madeleines
Shared letters: adeilmn. Private to "madeleine": -. Private to "madeleines": s.
"madeleine" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCV · "madeleines" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- madeleine ← amdeleine · maddeleine · madeeline · madeleien · madeleinne · madelenie · madeliene · madelleine
- madeleines ← amdeleines · maddeleines · madeelines · madeleiens · madeleiness · madeleinnes · madeleinse · madelenies
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "madeleine" and "madeleines" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "madeleine" or "madeleines" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "madeleine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "madeleines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #121,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "madeleine" and "madeleines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "madeleines vs Madeline". 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 #121,958 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.