Which to use
“paupière” and “paupières” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,111
- “paupière” frequency rank
- #18,015
- “paupières” frequency rank
- 50126
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paupière | paupières |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacune des deux membranes mobiles qui recouvrent le globe de l’œil quand elles se rapprochent, et qui sont bordées de petits poils appelés cils. | Pluriel de paupière. |
Same sound, different letters: paupière vs paupières
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. paupière runs 8 letters (CVVCVVCV) against paupières's 9 (CVVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - paupière and paupières
This is the hard kind. paupière and paupières are pronounced identically (\po.pjɛʁ\) 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) - “paupière” sits inside “paupières”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paupière is recorded at frequency rank #32,111, classified as anoun, pronounced \po.pjɛʁ\. paupières is at rank #18,015, tagged as anoun, pronounced \po.pjɛʁ\.
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 50126, this pair ranks #165,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of paupière vs paupières
Shared letters: aeipruè. Private to "paupière": -. Private to "paupières": s.
"paupière" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCV · "paupières" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "paupière" and "paupières" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "paupière" or "paupières" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "paupière" / "paupières". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "paupière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "paupières" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #165,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paupière" and "paupières" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paupière vs pupitre". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #165,116 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.