onclevsonclesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,415
“oncle” frequency rank
#21,098
“oncles” frequency rank
24513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oncle oncles
Definition Frère ou beau-frère de l’un des parents. Pluriel de oncle.

Same sound, different letters: oncle vs oncles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
oncle
6 ch
oncles

Homophone desk: oncle vs oncles

This is the hard kind. oncle and oncles are pronounced identically (\ɔ̃kl\) 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) - “oncle” sits inside “oncles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oncle is recorded at frequency rank #3,415, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ̃kl\. oncles is at rank #21,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ̃kl\.

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 24513, this pair ranks #346,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of oncle vs oncles

Shared letters: celno. Private to "oncle": -. Private to "oncles": s.

"oncle" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "oncles" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • onclenocle · ocnle · onccle · oncel · onclle · onlce · onncle
  • onclesnocles · ocnles · onccles · oncels · oncless · onclles · onclse · onlces

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "oncle" and "oncles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɔ̃kl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "oncle" vs "oncles" - which ranks higher?
"oncle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,415 in our French list, against #21,098 for "oncles". 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 "oncle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "oncles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #346,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oncle" and "oncles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oncles vs ondulés". 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 #346,195 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