Which to use
“perturbation” and “perturbations” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,227
- “perturbation” frequency rank
- #14,112
- “perturbations” frequency rank
- 31339
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perturbation | perturbations |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Trouble dans le fonctionnement d'un mécanisme ou de tout autre système technique, voire naturel. | Pluriel de perturbation. |
Same sound, different letters: perturbation vs perturbations
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - perturbation and perturbations
This is the hard kind. perturbation and perturbations are pronounced identically (\pɛʁ.tyʁ.ba.sjɔ̃\) 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) - “perturbation” sits inside “perturbations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perturbation is recorded at frequency rank #17,227, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.tyʁ.ba.sjɔ̃\. perturbations is at rank #14,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.tyʁ.ba.sjɔ̃\.
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 31339, this pair ranks #304,416 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of perturbation vs perturbations
Shared letters: abeinoprtu. Private to "perturbation": -. Private to "perturbations": s.
"perturbation" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVVC · "perturbations" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- perturbation ← eprturbation · perrturbation · pertrubation · pertturbation · pertubration · perturabtion · perturbaiton · perturbatino
- perturbations ← eprturbations · perrturbations · pertrubations · pertturbations · pertubrations · perturabtions · perturbaitons · perturbatinos
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "perturbation" and "perturbations" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "perturbation" or "perturbations"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "perturbation" / "perturbations". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "perturbation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "perturbations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,416 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 #304,416 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.