Which to use
“pollen” and “pollens” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,372
- “pollen” frequency rank
- #40,427
- “pollens” frequency rank
- 59799
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pollen | pollens |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Particules reproductrices mâles produites par les loges des anthères des étamines des fleurs, transmises par le vent (anémophiles), ou les animaux (zoophiles) : les insectes (entomophiles), les oiseaux (ornithophiles), les chauves-souris, etc. | Pluriel de pollen. |
Same sound, different letters: pollen vs pollens
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - pollen / pollens
This is the hard kind. pollen and pollens are pronounced identically (\pɔ.lɛn\) 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) - “pollen” sits inside “pollens”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pollen is recorded at frequency rank #19,372, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.lɛn\. pollens is at rank #40,427, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.lɛn\.
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 59799, this pair ranks #101,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pollen vs pollens
Shared letters: elnop. Private to "pollen": -. Private to "pollens": s.
"pollen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pollens" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pollen" for "pollens" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "pollen" or "pollens" show up more?
Useful next steps
"pollen" and "pollens" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "pollen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pollens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #101,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pollen" and "pollens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pollens vs polluées". 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 #101,122 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.