neutresvsneutronsTell them apart

Quick tell: neutres is a adjective, neutrons is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“neutres” is an adjective and “neutrons” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,100
“neutres” frequency rank
#29,459
“neutrons” frequency rank
43559
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature neutres neutrons
Definition Pluriel de neutre. Pluriel de neutron.

Where the eye mixes neutres and neutrons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. neutres runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against neutrons's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
neutres
8 ch
neutrons

Visual trap between neutres and neutrons

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: neutres is \nøtʁ\ while neutrons is \nøt.ʁɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

neutres is recorded at frequency rank #14,100, classified as anadj, pronounced \nøtʁ\. neutrons is at rank #29,459, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nøt.ʁɔ̃\.

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 43559, this pair ranks #217,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of neutres vs neutrons

Shared letters: enrstu. Private to "neutres": -. Private to "neutrons": o.

"neutres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "neutrons" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • neutres ← enutres · netures · neurtes · neuters · neutress · neutrres · neutrse · neuttres
  • neutrons ← enutrons · neturons · neurtons · neutorns · neutrnos · neutronns · neutronss · neutrosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "neutres" and "neutrons" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "neutres" is an adjective and "neutrons" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "neutres" or "neutrons" show up more?
"neutres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,100 in our French list, against #29,459 for "neutrons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "neutres" and "neutrons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "neutres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "neutrons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #217,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "neutres" and "neutrons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Neutron vs neutrons". 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 #217,129 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