pelliculevspelliculesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,508
“pellicule” frequency rank
#35,201
“pellicules” frequency rank
52709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pellicule pellicules
Definition Petite peau, peau extrêmement mince et déliée. Pluriel de pellicule.

Same sound, different letters: pellicule vs pellicules

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. pellicule runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against pellicules's 10 (CVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
pellicule
10 ch
pellicules

Ear matches; page differs - pellicule and pellicules

This is the hard kind. pellicule and pellicules are pronounced identically (\pɛ.li.kyl\) 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) - “pellicule” sits inside “pellicules”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pellicule is recorded at frequency rank #17,508, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.li.kyl\. pellicules is at rank #35,201, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.li.kyl\.

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 52709, this pair ranks #145,837 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pellicule vs pellicules

Shared letters: ceilpu. Private to "pellicule": -. Private to "pellicules": s.

"pellicule" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "pellicules" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pellicule ← epllicule · pelicule · pelilcule · pellciule · pelliccule · pelliclue · pellicuel · pelliculle
  • pellicules ← epllicules · pelicules · pelilcules · pellciules · pelliccules · pelliclues · pellicuels · pelliculess

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pellicule" and "pellicules" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pɛ.li.kyl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "pellicule" or "pellicules" show up more?
"pellicule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,508 in our French list, against #35,201 for "pellicules". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pellicule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pellicules" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,837 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #145,837 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