picturevspicturesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#27,908
“picture” frequency rank
#24,715
“pictures” frequency rank
52623
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature picture pictures
Definition Image. Pluriel de picture.

Where the eye mixes picture and pictures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. picture runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against pictures's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
picture
8 ch
pictures

Visual trap between picture and pictures

A purely visual mix-up. picture (\ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\) and pictures (\ˈpɪk.tʃɚz\) 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 extra letter(s) - “picture” sits inside “pictures”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52623, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

picture is recorded at frequency rank #27,908, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\. pictures is at rank #24,715, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɪk.tʃɚz\.

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 52623, this pair ranks #146,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of picture vs pictures

Shared letters: ceiprtu. Private to "picture": -. Private to "pictures": s.

"picture" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "pictures" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picture ← ipcture · pciture · piccture · pictrue · pictture · pictuer · picturre · picutre
  • pictures ← ipctures · pcitures · picctures · pictrues · picttures · pictuers · picturess · picturres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "picture" and "pictures" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\ versus \ˈpɪk.tʃɚz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "picture" or "pictures"?
"pictures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,715 in our French list, against #27,908 for "picture". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "picture" and "pictures" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "picture" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pictures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "picture" and "pictures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pictural vs picture". 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 #146,407 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