mitrailleusevsmitrailleusesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,254
“mitrailleuse” frequency rank
#23,284
“mitrailleuses” frequency rank
51538
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mitrailleuse mitrailleuses
Definition Arme à feu automatique, disposée de manière à envoyer des balles avec une très grande rapidité. Pluriel de mitrailleuse.

Same sound, different letters: mitrailleuse vs mitrailleuses

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. mitrailleuse runs 12 letters (CVCCVVCCVVCV) against mitrailleuses's 13 (CVCCVVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
mitrailleuse
13 ch
mitrailleuses

Ear matches; page differs - mitrailleuse and mitrailleuses

This is the hard kind. mitrailleuse and mitrailleuses are pronounced identically (\mi.tʁa.jøz\) 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) - “mitrailleuse” sits inside “mitrailleuses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mitrailleuse is recorded at frequency rank #28,254, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.tʁa.jøz\. mitrailleuses is at rank #23,284, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.tʁa.jøz\.

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 51538, this pair ranks #154,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mitrailleuse vs mitrailleuses

Shared letters: aeilmrstu. Private to "mitrailleuse": -. Private to "mitrailleuses": -.

"mitrailleuse" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVVCV  ·  "mitrailleuses" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mitrailleuse ← imtrailleuse · mirtailleuse · mitarilleuse · mitraileluse · mitraileuse · mitraillesue · mitrailleues · mitrailluese
  • mitrailleuses ← imtrailleuses · mirtailleuses · mitarilleuses · mitraileluses · mitraileuses · mitraillesues · mitrailleuess · mitrailleusess

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mitrailleuse" and "mitrailleuses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\mi.tʁa.jøz\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "mitrailleuse" or "mitrailleuses"?
"mitrailleuses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,284 in our French list, against #28,254 for "mitrailleuse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "mitrailleuse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mitrailleuses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mitrailleuse" and "mitrailleuses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mitrailleur vs mitrailleuse". 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 #154,272 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