Which to use
“plomb” and “plombs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,484
- “plomb” frequency rank
- #15,719
- “plombs” frequency rank
- 21203
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | plomb | plombs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Élément chimique de symbole Pb et de numéro atomique 82; il appartient à la série chimique des métaux pauvres. | Pluriel de plomb. |
Same sound, different letters: plomb vs plombs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - plomb and plombs
This is the hard kind. plomb and plombs are pronounced identically (\plɔ̃\) 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) - “plomb” sits inside “plombs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21203, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
plomb is recorded at frequency rank #5,484, classified as anoun, pronounced \plɔ̃\. plombs is at rank #15,719, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɔ̃\.
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 21203, this pair ranks #364,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of plomb vs plombs
Shared letters: blmop. Private to "plomb": -. Private to "plombs": s.
"plomb" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "plombs" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "plomb" and "plombs" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "plomb" vs "plombs" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "plomb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plombs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "plomb" and "plombs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plombs vs plots". 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 #364,373 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.