paiementvspaiementsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,944
“paiement” frequency rank
#8,748
“paiements” frequency rank
11692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paiement paiements
Definition Ce qui se donne pour acquitter une dette. Pluriel de paiement.

Same sound, different letters: paiement vs paiements

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. paiement runs 8 letters (CVVVCVCC) against paiements's 9 (CVVVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
paiement
9 ch
paiements

Homophone desk: paiement vs paiements

This is the hard kind. paiement and paiements are pronounced identically (\pɛ.mɑ̃\) 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) - “paiement” sits inside “paiements”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paiement is recorded at frequency rank #2,944, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.mɑ̃\. paiements is at rank #8,748, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.mɑ̃\.

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 11692, this pair ranks #408,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of paiement vs paiements

Shared letters: aeimnpt. Private to "paiement": -. Private to "paiements": s.

"paiement" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCVCC  ·  "paiements" · 9 letters · shape CVVVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paiement ← apiement · paeiment · paieemnt · paiemennt · paiementt · paiemetn · paiemment · paiemnet
  • paiements ← apiements · paeiments · paieemnts · paiemennts · paiemenst · paiementss · paiementts · paiemetns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "paiement" and "paiements" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pɛ.mɑ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "paiement" vs "paiements" - which ranks higher?
"paiement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,944 in our French list, against #8,748 for "paiements". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "paiement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paiements" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #408,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paiement" and "paiements" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paiements vs parement". 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 #408,207 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