Which to use
“membrane” and “membranes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,439
- “membrane” frequency rank
- #30,704
- “membranes” frequency rank
- 46143
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | membrane | membranes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tissu organique animal servant à former, envelopper, séparer ou tapisser des cellules ou des organes. | Pluriel de membrane. |
Same sound, different letters: membrane vs membranes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. membrane runs 8 letters (CVCCCVCV) against membranes's 9 (CVCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - membrane / membranes
This is the hard kind. membrane and membranes are pronounced identically (\mɑ̃.bʁan\) 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) - “membrane” sits inside “membranes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46143, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
membrane is recorded at frequency rank #15,439, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃.bʁan\. membranes is at rank #30,704, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃.bʁan\.
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 46143, this pair ranks #197,273 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of membrane vs membranes
Shared letters: abemnr. Private to "membrane": -. Private to "membranes": s.
"membrane" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV · "membranes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "membrane" for "membranes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "membrane" or "membranes"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "membrane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "membranes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #197,273 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "membrane" and "membranes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "membranes vs membres". 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 #197,273 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.