originevsoriginesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#619
“origine” frequency rank
#3,481
“origines” frequency rank
4100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature origine origines
Definition Commencement. Pluriel de origine.

Same sound, different letters: origine vs origines

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. origine runs 7 letters (VCVCVCV) against origines's 8 (VCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
origine
8 ch
origines

Ear matches; page differs - origine and origines

This is the hard kind. origine and origines are pronounced identically (\ɔ.ʁi.ʒin\) 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) - “origine” sits inside “origines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

origine is recorded at frequency rank #619, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁi.ʒin\. origines is at rank #3,481, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁi.ʒin\.

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 4100, this pair ranks #432,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of origine vs origines

Shared letters: eginor. Private to "origine": -. Private to "origines": s.

"origine" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV  ·  "origines" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • origine ← oirgine · orgiine · origgine · origien · originne · orignie · oriigne · orrigine
  • origines ← oirgines · orgiines · origgines · origiens · originess · originnes · originse · orignies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "origine" for "origines" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɔ.ʁi.ʒin\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "origine" or "origines" show up more?
"origine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #619 in our French list, against #3,481 for "origines". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "origine" / "origines". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "origine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "origines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "origine" and "origines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "orgies vs origines". 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 #432,466 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