millimètrevsmillimètresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,438
“millimètre” frequency rank
#14,738
“millimètres” frequency rank
41176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature millimètre millimètres
Definition Unité de mesure de longueur du Système international (SI), valant 10⁻³ mètre, et dont le symbole est mm. Pluriel de millimètre.

Same sound, different letters: millimètre vs millimètres

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. millimètre runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCCV) against millimètres's 11 (CVCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
millimètre
11 ch
millimètres

Homophone desk: millimètre vs millimètres

This is the hard kind. millimètre and millimètres are pronounced identically (\mi.li.mɛtʁ\) 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) - “millimètre” sits inside “millimètres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

millimètre is recorded at frequency rank #26,438, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.li.mɛtʁ\. millimètres is at rank #14,738, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.li.mɛtʁ\.

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 41176, this pair ranks #235,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of millimètre vs millimètres

Shared letters: eilmrtè. Private to "millimètre": -. Private to "millimètres": s.

"millimètre" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV  ·  "millimètres" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "millimètre" for "millimètres" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\mi.li.mɛtʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "millimètre" vs "millimètres" - which ranks higher?
"millimètres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,738 in our French list, against #26,438 for "millimètre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "millimètre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "millimètres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "millimètre" and "millimètres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "millimètre vs mm". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #235,056 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