Which to use
“pastille” and “pastilles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,967
- “pastille” frequency rank
- #31,644
- “pastilles” frequency rank
- 70611
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pastille | pastilles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petits morceaux de pâte séchée, de différentes formes, utilisée en confiserie et en pharmacie où l'on considère que ce sont des saccharolés solidifiés. | Pluriel de pastille. |
Same sound, different letters: pastille vs pastilles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. pastille runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against pastilles's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - pastille / pastilles
This is the hard kind. pastille and pastilles are pronounced identically (\pas.tij\) 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) - “pastille” sits inside “pastilles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pastille is recorded at frequency rank #38,967, classified as anoun, pronounced \pas.tij\. pastilles is at rank #31,644, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pas.tij\.
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 70611, this pair ranks #50,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pastille vs pastilles
Shared letters: aeilpst. Private to "pastille": -. Private to "pastilles": -.
"pastille" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "pastilles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pastille" for "pastilles" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pastille" vs "pastilles" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "pastille" / "pastilles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "pastille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pastilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pastille" and "pastilles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pastiche vs pastille". 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 #50,705 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.