Which to use
“poison” and “poisons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,216
- “poison” frequency rank
- #29,912
- “poisons” frequency rank
- 39128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poison | poisons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Substance qui, introduite dans l’organisme, altère ou même détruit les fonctions vitales. | Pluriel de poison. |
Same sound, different letters: poison vs poisons
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. poison runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against poisons's 7 (CVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: poison vs poisons
This is the hard kind. poison and poisons are pronounced identically (\pwa.zɔ̃\) 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) - “poison” sits inside “poisons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poison is recorded at frequency rank #9,216, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa.zɔ̃\. poisons is at rank #29,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwa.zɔ̃\.
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 39128, this pair ranks #250,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poison vs poisons
Shared letters: inops. Private to "poison": -. Private to "poisons": -.
"poison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "poisons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "poison" and "poisons" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "poison" vs "poisons" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "poison" / "poisons". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "poison" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poisons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poison" and "poisons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poisons vs potions". 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 #250,302 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.