passiblesvspossiblesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,662
“passibles” frequency rank
#2,791
“possibles” frequency rank
37453
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passibles possibles
Definition Pluriel de passible. Pluriel de possible.

Where the eye mixes passibles and possibles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. passibles and possibles follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
passibles
9 ch
possibles

Visual trap between passibles and possibles

A purely visual mix-up. passibles (\pa.sibl\) and possibles (\pɔ.sibl\) 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 a single letter - a in “passibles” becomes o in “possibles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37453, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passibles is recorded at frequency rank #34,662, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.sibl\. possibles is at rank #2,791, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.sibl\.

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 37453, this pair ranks #262,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of passibles vs possibles

Shared letters: beilps. Private to "passibles": a. Private to "possibles": o.

"passibles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "possibles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passibles ← apssibles · pasibles · pasisbles · passbiles · passibbles · passibels · passibless · passiblles
  • possibles ← opssibles · posibles · posisbles · possbiles · possibbles · possibels · possibless · possiblles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "passibles" and "possibles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pa.sibl\ versus \pɔ.sibl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "passibles" or "possibles"?
"possibles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,791 in our French list, against #34,662 for "passibles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "passibles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "possibles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passibles" and "possibles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passibles 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 #262,413 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