ordinateurvsordinateursWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,631
“ordinateur” frequency rank
#6,421
“ordinateurs” frequency rank
9052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ordinateur ordinateurs
Definition Qui ordonne. Pluriel de ordinateur.

Same sound, different letters: ordinateur vs ordinateurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters.

10 ch
ordinateur
11 ch
ordinateurs

Homophone desk: ordinateur vs ordinateurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: ordinateur and ordinateurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɔʁ.di.na.tœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ordinateur” sits inside “ordinateurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ordinateur is recorded at frequency rank #2,631, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔʁ.di.na.tœʁ\. ordinateurs is at rank #6,421, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁ.di.na.tœʁ\.

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 9052, this pair ranks #417,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ordinateur vs ordinateurs

Shared letters: adeinortu. Private to "ordinateur": -. Private to "ordinateurs": s.

"ordinateur" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC  ·  "ordinateurs" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ordinateurodrinateur · orddinateur · ordianteur · ordinaetur · ordinateru · ordinateurr · ordinatteur · ordinatuer
  • ordinateursodrinateurs · orddinateurs · ordianteurs · ordinaeturs · ordinaterus · ordinateurrs · ordinateurss · ordinateusr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ordinateur" for "ordinateurs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ordinateur" is an adjective and "ordinateurs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ordinateur" vs "ordinateurs" - which ranks higher?
"ordinateur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,631 in our French list, against #6,421 for "ordinateurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"ordinateur" and "ordinateurs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ordinateur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ordinateurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #417,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ordinateur" and "ordinateurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ordinateur vs ordonnateur". 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 #417,953 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