passiblevsplausibleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,506
“passible” frequency rank
#15,963
“plausible” frequency rank
33469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passible plausible
Definition Qui peut subir, qui a mérité de subir une peine. Qui a une apparence de vérité ; qui est accepté ou admis jusqu’à preuve du contraire.

Where the eye mixes passible and plausible

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
passible
9 ch
plausible

Look-alike desk: passible vs plausible

A purely visual mix-up. passible (\pa.sibl\) and plausible (\plo.zibl\) 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 33469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passible is recorded at frequency rank #17,506, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.sibl\. plausible is at rank #15,963, tagged as anadj, pronounced \plo.zibl\.

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 33469, this pair ranks #290,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of passible vs plausible

Shared letters: abeilps. Private to "passible": -. Private to "plausible": u.

"passible" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "plausible" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passibleapssible · pasible · pasisble · passbile · passibble · passibel · passiblle · passilbe
  • plausiblelpausible · palusible · plasuible · plauisble · plausbile · plausibble · plausibel · plausiblle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "passible" and "plausible" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pa.sibl\ versus \plo.zibl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "passible" or "plausible" show up more?
"plausible" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,963 in our French list, against #17,506 for "passible". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "passible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plausible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passible" and "plausible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plausible vs plausibles". 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 #290,429 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