Which to use
“pauses” and “poussés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,697
- “pauses” frequency rank
- #16,213
- “poussés” frequency rank
- 32910
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pauses | poussés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pause. | Pluriel de poussé. |
Where the eye mixes pauses and poussés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pauses runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against poussés's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pauses with poussés
A purely visual mix-up. pauses (\poz\) and poussés (\pu.se\) 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 32910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pauses is recorded at frequency rank #16,697, classified as anoun, pronounced \poz\. poussés is at rank #16,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.se\.
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 32910, this pair ranks #294,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pauses vs poussés
Shared letters: psu. Private to "pauses": ae. Private to "poussés": oé.
"pauses" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "poussés" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pauses ← apuses · pasues · pauess · pausess · pausses · ppauses · puases
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pauses" and "poussés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pauses" or "poussés"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pauses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poussés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #294,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pauses" and "poussés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pauses vs pieuses". 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 #294,144 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.