oreillersvsoreillesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#28,273
“oreillers” frequency rank
#2,941
“oreilles” frequency rank
31214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oreillers oreilles
Definition Pluriel de oreiller. Pluriel de oreille.

Where the eye mixes oreillers and oreilles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
oreillers
8 ch
oreilles

Why the eye confuses oreillers with oreilles

A purely visual mix-up. oreillers (\ɔ.ʁe.je\) and oreilles (\ɔ.ʁɛj\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oreillers is recorded at frequency rank #28,273, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁe.je\. 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 31214, this pair ranks #305,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oreillers vs oreilles

Shared letters: eilors. Private to "oreillers": -. Private to "oreilles": -.

"oreillers" · 9 letters · shape VCVVCCVCC  ·  "oreilles" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • oreillersoerillers · oreilelrs · oreilers · oreillerrs · oreillerss · oreillesr · oreillres · orelilers
  • oreillesoerilles · oreilels · oreiles · oreilless · oreillse · oreliles · orielles · orreilles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "oreillers" and "oreilles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɔ.ʁe.je\ versus \ɔ.ʁɛj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "oreillers" or "oreilles"?
"oreilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,941 in our French list, against #28,273 for "oreillers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "oreillers" 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 #305,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oreillers" and "oreilles" 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 #305,215 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