plexusvsprévusTell them apart

Quick tell: plexus is a noun, prévus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“plexus” is a noun and “prévus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,357
“plexus” frequency rank
#6,427
“prévus” frequency rank
52784
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plexus prévus
Definition Lacis, réseau formé par plusieurs filets de nerfs, spécialement les nerfs rachidiens, ou par plusieurs petits vaisseaux entrelacés. Masculin pluriel de prévu.

Where the eye mixes plexus and prévus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
plexus
6 ch
prévus

Why the eye confuses plexus with prévus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: plexus is \plɛk.sys\ while prévus is \pʁe.vy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plexus is recorded at frequency rank #46,357, classified as anoun, pronounced \plɛk.sys\. prévus is at rank #6,427, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.vy\.

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 52784, this pair ranks #145,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plexus vs prévus

Shared letters: psu. Private to "plexus": elx. Private to "prévus": rvé.

"plexus" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "prévus" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plexuslpexus · pelxus · pleuxs · plexsu · plexuss · plexxus · pllexus · plxeus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "plexus" for "prévus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "plexus" is a noun and "prévus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "plexus" or "prévus" show up more?
"prévus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,427 in our French list, against #46,357 for "plexus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plexus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prévus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,323 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plexus" and "prévus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pleut vs plexus". 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 #145,323 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