Which to use
“missile” and “missiles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,890
- “missile” frequency rank
- #7,343
- “missiles” frequency rank
- 16233
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | missile | missiles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Projectile. | Pluriel de missile. |
Same sound, different letters: missile vs missiles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. missile runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against missiles's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: missile vs missiles
This is the hard kind. missile and missiles are pronounced identically (\mi.sil\) 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) - “missile” sits inside “missiles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
missile is recorded at frequency rank #8,890, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.sil\. missiles is at rank #7,343, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.sil\.
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 16233, this pair ranks #388,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of missile vs missiles
Shared letters: eilms. Private to "missile": -. Private to "missiles": -.
"missile" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "missiles" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "missile" and "missiles" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "missile" vs "missiles" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "missile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "missiles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #388,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "missile" and "missiles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "missel vs missile". 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 #388,775 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.