parabolesvsparolesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,496
“paraboles” frequency rank
#1,926
“paroles” frequency rank
49422
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paraboles paroles
Definition Pluriel de parabole. Mots d’un air, d’une chanson ; poème d’une cantate ; livret d’un opéra.

Where the eye mixes paraboles and paroles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. paraboles runs 9 letters (CVCVCVCVC) against paroles's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
paraboles
7 ch
paroles

Visual trap between paraboles and paroles

A purely visual mix-up. paraboles (\pa.ʁa.bɔl\) and paroles (\pa.ʁɔl\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49422, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paraboles is recorded at frequency rank #47,496, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ʁa.bɔl\. paroles is at rank #1,926, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.ʁɔl\.

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 49422, this pair ranks #170,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paraboles vs paroles

Shared letters: aeloprs. Private to "paraboles": b. Private to "paroles": -.

"paraboles" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "paroles" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paraboles ← apraboles · paarboles · parabboles · parabloes · paraboels · paraboless · parabolles · parabolse
  • paroles ← aproles · paorles · parloes · paroels · paroless · parolles · parolse · parroles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "paraboles" for "paroles" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pa.ʁa.bɔl\ versus \pa.ʁɔl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "paraboles" or "paroles"?
"paroles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,926 in our French list, against #47,496 for "paraboles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paraboles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paroles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paraboles" and "paroles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paraboles vs payables". 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 #170,802 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