Which to use
“oignon” and “oignons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,439
- “oignon” frequency rank
- #10,039
- “oignons” frequency rank
- 23478
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | oignon | oignons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plante à bulbe comestible, de la famille des liliacées (classification classique) ou des amaryllidacées (classification phylogénétique). | Pluriel de oignon. |
Same sound, different letters: oignon vs oignons
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. oignon runs 6 letters (VVCCVC) against oignons's 7 (VVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - oignon / oignons
This is the hard kind. oignon and oignons are pronounced identically (\ɔ.ɲɔ̃\) 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) - “oignon” sits inside “oignons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
oignon is recorded at frequency rank #13,439, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ɲɔ̃\. oignons is at rank #10,039, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ɲɔ̃\.
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 23478, this pair ranks #352,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of oignon vs oignons
Shared letters: gino. Private to "oignon": -. Private to "oignons": s.
"oignon" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC · "oignons" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "oignon" for "oignons" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "oignon" or "oignons" show up more?
What to do next
"oignon" and "oignons" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "oignon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oignons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #352,267 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.