Which to use
“pliés” and “plis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,634
- “pliés” frequency rank
- #16,211
- “plis” frequency rank
- 60845
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pliés | plis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de plié. | Pluriel de pli. |
Where the eye mixes pliés and plis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pliés runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against plis's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pliés vs plis
A purely visual mix-up. pliés (\pli.je\) and plis (\pli\) 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 60845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pliés is recorded at frequency rank #44,634, classified as anoun, pronounced \pli.je\. plis is at rank #16,211, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pli\.
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 60845, this pair ranks #95,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pliés vs plis
Shared letters: ilps. Private to "pliés": é. Private to "plis": -.
"pliés" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "plis" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- plis ← lpis · pils · pliss · pllis · plsi · pplis
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pliés" for "plis" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pliés" vs "plis" - which ranks higher?
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 "pliés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #95,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pliés" and "plis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pliés vs priée". 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 #95,490 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.