Which to use
“polémique” and “polémiques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,701
- “polémique” frequency rank
- #11,637
- “polémiques” frequency rank
- 16338
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | polémique | polémiques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui appartient à la dispute. | Pluriel de polémique. |
Same sound, different letters: polémique vs polémiques
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. polémique runs 9 letters (CVCVCVCVV) against polémiques's 10 (CVCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - polémique and polémiques
This is the hard kind. polémique and polémiques are pronounced identically (\pɔ.le.mik\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “polémique” sits inside “polémiques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
polémique is recorded at frequency rank #4,701, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.le.mik\. polémiques is at rank #11,637, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.le.mik\.
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 16338, this pair ranks #388,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of polémique vs polémiques
Shared letters: eilmopqué. Private to "polémique": -. Private to "polémiques": s.
"polémique" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV · "polémiques" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "polémique" and "polémiques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "polémique" or "polémiques" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "polémique" / "polémiques". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "polémique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "polémiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #388,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "polémique" and "polémiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "polémiquer vs polémiques". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #388,283 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.