Which to use
“polluant” and “polluantes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,187
- “polluant” frequency rank
- #27,570
- “polluantes” frequency rank
- 58757
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | polluant | polluantes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui pollue, qui souille ou dénature l’environnement. | Féminin pluriel de polluant. |
Where the eye mixes polluant and polluantes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. polluant runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCC) against polluantes's 10 (CVCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses polluant with polluantes
A purely visual mix-up. polluant (\pɔ.lɥɑ̃\) and polluantes (\pɔ.lɥɑ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “polluant” sits inside “polluantes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
polluant is recorded at frequency rank #31,187, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.lɥɑ̃\. polluantes is at rank #27,570, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.lɥɑ̃t\.
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 58757, this pair ranks #107,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of polluant vs polluantes
Shared letters: alnoptu. Private to "polluant": -. Private to "polluantes": es.
"polluant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC · "polluantes" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- polluant ← oplluant · ploluant · pollaunt · polluannt · polluantt · polluatn · pollunat · poluant
- polluantes ← oplluantes · ploluantes · pollauntes · polluanets · polluanntes · polluantess · polluantse · polluanttes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "polluant" and "polluantes" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "polluant" or "polluantes"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "polluant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "polluantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "polluant" and "polluantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "polluant vs polluante". 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 #107,094 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.