Which to use
“nation” and “nations” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,138
- “nation” frequency rank
- #1,745
- “nations” frequency rank
- 3883
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nation | nations |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ethnie, peuple, communauté humaine qui possède une unité historique, linguistique, culturelle, économique plus ou moins forte. | Pluriel de nation. |
Same sound, different letters: nation vs nations
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. nation runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against nations's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - nation and nations
This is the hard kind. nation and nations are pronounced identically (\na.sjɔ̃\) 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) - “nation” sits inside “nations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3883, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nation is recorded at frequency rank #2,138, classified as anoun, pronounced \na.sjɔ̃\. nations is at rank #1,745, tagged as anoun, pronounced \na.sjɔ̃\.
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 3883, this pair ranks #432,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of nation vs nations
Shared letters: ainot. Private to "nation": -. Private to "nations": s.
"nation" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "nations" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "nation" and "nations" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "nation" or "nations"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "nation" / "nations". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "nation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nation" and "nations" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nations vs Natixis". 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 #432,980 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.