plombiervsplombiersWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,459
“plombier” frequency rank
#37,001
“plombiers” frequency rank
52460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plombier plombiers
Definition Ouvrier qui travaille le plomb. Pluriel de plombier.

Same sound, different letters: plombier vs plombiers

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. plombier runs 8 letters (CCVCCVVC) against plombiers's 9 (CCVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
plombier
9 ch
plombiers

Same sound, different spelling - plombier / plombiers

This is the hard kind. plombier and plombiers are pronounced identically (\plɔ̃.bje\) 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) - “plombier” sits inside “plombiers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plombier is recorded at frequency rank #15,459, classified as anoun, pronounced \plɔ̃.bje\. plombiers is at rank #37,001, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɔ̃.bje\.

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 52460, this pair ranks #147,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plombier vs plombiers

Shared letters: beilmopr. Private to "plombier": -. Private to "plombiers": s.

"plombier" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC  ·  "plombiers" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plombier ← lpombier · pllombier · plmobier · plobmier · plombbier · plombeir · plombierr · plombire
  • plombiers ← lpombiers · pllombiers · plmobiers · plobmiers · plombbiers · plombeirs · plombierrs · plombierss

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "plombier" and "plombiers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\plɔ̃.bje\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "plombier" or "plombiers"?
"plombier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,459 in our French list, against #37,001 for "plombiers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"plombier" and "plombiers" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "plombier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plombiers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plombier" and "plombiers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plomber vs plombiers". 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 #147,571 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