opportunismevsopportunistesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: opportunisme is a noun, opportunistes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#28,272
“opportunisme” frequency rank
#28,670
“opportunistes” frequency rank
56942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature opportunisme opportunistes
Definition Doctrine politique qui subordonne la marche des affaires aux circonstances. Pluriel de opportuniste.

Where the eye mixes opportunisme and opportunistes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. opportunisme runs 12 letters (VCCVCCVCVCCV) against opportunistes's 13 (VCCVCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
opportunisme
13 ch
opportunistes

Visual trap between opportunisme and opportunistes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: opportunisme is \ɔ.pɔʁ.ty.nism\ while opportunistes is \ɔ.pɔʁ.ty.nist\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

opportunisme is recorded at frequency rank #28,272, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.pɔʁ.ty.nism\. opportunistes is at rank #28,670, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɔ.pɔʁ.ty.nist\.

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 56942, this pair ranks #118,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of opportunisme vs opportunistes

Shared letters: einoprstu. Private to "opportunisme": m. Private to "opportunistes": -.

"opportunisme" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCCV  ·  "opportunistes" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • opportunisme ← opoprtunisme · oportunisme · opporrtunisme · opportnuisme · opporttunisme · opportuinsme · opportunimse · opportunisem
  • opportunistes ← opoprtunistes · oportunistes · opporrtunistes · opportnuistes · opporttunistes · opportuinstes · opportunisets · opportunisstes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "opportunisme" for "opportunistes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "opportunisme" is a noun and "opportunistes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "opportunisme" vs "opportunistes" - which ranks higher?
"opportunisme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,272 in our French list, against #28,670 for "opportunistes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "opportunisme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "opportunistes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "opportunisme" and "opportunistes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "opportuniste vs opportunistes". 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 #118,013 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