pathologiquevspathologiquesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,418
“pathologique” frequency rank
#36,522
“pathologiques” frequency rank
57940
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pathologique pathologiques
Definition Qui appartient à la pathologie. Pluriel de pathologique.

Same sound, different letters: pathologique vs pathologiques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. pathologique runs 12 letters (CVCCVCVCVCVV) against pathologiques's 13 (CVCCVCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
pathologique
13 ch
pathologiques

Ear matches; page differs - pathologique and pathologiques

This is the hard kind. pathologique and pathologiques are pronounced identically (\pa.tɔ.lɔ.ʒik\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “pathologique” sits inside “pathologiques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pathologique is recorded at frequency rank #21,418, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.tɔ.lɔ.ʒik\. pathologiques is at rank #36,522, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.tɔ.lɔ.ʒik\.

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 57940, this pair ranks #112,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pathologique vs pathologiques

Shared letters: aeghilopqtu. Private to "pathologique": -. Private to "pathologiques": s.

"pathologique" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCVV  ·  "pathologiques" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pathologique ← apthologique · pahtologique · pathhologique · pathloogique · patholgoique · pathollogique · pathologgique · pathologiqeu
  • pathologiques ← apthologiques · pahtologiques · pathhologiques · pathloogiques · patholgoiques · pathollogiques · pathologgiques · pathologiqeus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pathologique" and "pathologiques" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pa.tɔ.lɔ.ʒik\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "pathologique" vs "pathologiques" - which ranks higher?
"pathologique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,418 in our French list, against #36,522 for "pathologiques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"pathologique" and "pathologiques" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pathologique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pathologiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pathologique" and "pathologiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pathologies vs pathologiques". 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 #112,012 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