polymèrevspolymèresTell them apart

Quick tell: polymère is a adjective, polymères is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“polymère” is an adjective and “polymères” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,913
“polymère” frequency rank
#37,002
“polymères” frequency rank
66915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature polymère polymères
Definition Complexe, comportant de nombreux composants. Pluriel de polymère.

Same sound, different letters: polymère vs polymères

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

8 ch
polymère
9 ch
polymères

Same sound, different spelling - polymère / polymères

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: polymère and polymères carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɔ.li.mɛʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “polymère” sits inside “polymères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

polymère is recorded at frequency rank #29,913, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.li.mɛʁ\. polymères is at rank #37,002, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.li.mɛʁ\.

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 66915, this pair ranks #65,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of polymère vs polymères

Shared letters: elmopryè. Private to "polymère": -. Private to "polymères": s.

"polymère" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "polymères" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "polymère" for "polymères" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "polymère" is an adjective and "polymères" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "polymère" or "polymères" show up more?
"polymère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,913 in our French list, against #37,002 for "polymères". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "polymère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "polymères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #65,728 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