Which to use
“misère” and “misères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,354
- “misère” frequency rank
- #28,253
- “misères” frequency rank
- 32607
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | misère | misères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Condition, état de celui qui inspire la pitié. | Pluriel de misère. |
Same sound, different letters: misère vs misères
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. misère runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against misères's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - misère / misères
This is the hard kind. misère and misères are pronounced identically (\mi.zɛʁ\) 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) - “misère” sits inside “misères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
misère is recorded at frequency rank #4,354, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.zɛʁ\. misères is at rank #28,253, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.zɛʁ\.
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 32607, this pair ranks #296,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of misère vs misères
Shared letters: eimrsè. Private to "misère": -. Private to "misères": -.
"misère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "misères" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "misère" and "misères" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "misère" or "misères" show up more?
What to do next
"misère" and "misères" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "misère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "misères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #296,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "misère" and "misères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "misères vs miséreux". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #296,173 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.