monopolevsmonopolesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,598
“monopole” frequency rank
#26,801
“monopoles” frequency rank
34399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature monopole monopoles
Definition Trafic exclusif, fait en vertu d’un privilège. Pluriel de monopole.

Same sound, different letters: monopole vs monopoles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. monopole runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against monopoles's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
monopole
9 ch
monopoles

Homophone desk: monopole vs monopoles

This is the hard kind. monopole and monopoles are pronounced identically (\mɔ.nɔ.pɔl\) 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) - “monopole” sits inside “monopoles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

monopole is recorded at frequency rank #7,598, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.nɔ.pɔl\. monopoles is at rank #26,801, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mɔ.nɔ.pɔl\.

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 34399, this pair ranks #284,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of monopole vs monopoles

Shared letters: elmnop. Private to "monopole": -. Private to "monopoles": s.

"monopole" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "monopoles" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • monopole ← mmonopole · mnoopole · monnopole · monoople · monoploe · monopoel · monopolle · monoppole
  • monopoles ← mmonopoles · mnoopoles · monnopoles · monooples · monoploes · monopoels · monopoless · monopolles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "monopole" and "monopoles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\mɔ.nɔ.pɔl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "monopole" vs "monopoles" - which ranks higher?
"monopole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,598 in our French list, against #26,801 for "monopoles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "monopole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "monopoles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "monopole" and "monopoles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mongoles vs monopoles". 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 #284,099 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