Which to use
“oreiller” and “oreillers” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,026
- “oreiller” frequency rank
- #28,273
- “oreillers” frequency rank
- 41299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | oreiller | oreillers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Coussin qui sert à soutenir la tête quand on est couché. | Pluriel de oreiller. |
Where the eye mixes oreiller and oreillers
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. oreiller runs 8 letters (VCVVCCVC) against oreillers's 9 (VCVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses oreiller with oreillers
A purely visual mix-up. oreiller (\ɔ.ʁɛ.je\) and oreillers (\ɔ.ʁe.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “oreiller” sits inside “oreillers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
oreiller is recorded at frequency rank #13,026, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁɛ.je\. oreillers is at rank #28,273, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁe.je\.
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 41299, this pair ranks #234,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of oreiller vs oreillers
Shared letters: eilor. Private to "oreiller": -. Private to "oreillers": s.
"oreiller" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCCVC · "oreillers" · 9 letters · shape VCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "oreiller" for "oreillers" ever safe?
Frequency check: "oreiller" vs "oreillers" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "oreiller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oreillers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #234,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "oreiller" and "oreillers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oreillers 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 #234,142 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.