Which to use
“oreille” and “oreilles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,210
- “oreille” frequency rank
- #2,941
- “oreilles” frequency rank
- 6151
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | oreille | oreilles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Appareil de l’audition divisé en trois parties. | Pluriel de oreille. |
Same sound, different letters: oreille vs oreilles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. oreille runs 7 letters (VCVVCCV) against oreilles's 8 (VCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - oreille / oreilles
This is the hard kind. oreille and oreilles are pronounced identically (\ɔ.ʁɛj\) 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) - “oreille” sits inside “oreilles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
oreille is recorded at frequency rank #3,210, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁɛj\. oreilles is at rank #2,941, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁɛj\.
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 6151, this pair ranks #427,041 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of oreille vs oreilles
Shared letters: eilor. Private to "oreille": -. Private to "oreilles": s.
"oreille" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCCV · "oreilles" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "oreille" for "oreilles" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "oreille" or "oreilles" show up more?
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 "oreille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oreilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #427,041 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "oreille" and "oreilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oreilles vs oreillons". 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 #427,041 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.