postulantsvspostulatsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“postulants” and “postulats” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,523
“postulants” frequency rank
#45,238
“postulats” frequency rank
92761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature postulants postulats
Definition Pluriel de postulant. Pluriel de postulat.

Where the eye mixes postulants and postulats

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. postulants runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCCC) against postulats's 9 (CVCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
postulants
9 ch
postulats

Look-alike desk: postulants vs postulats

A purely visual mix-up. postulants (\pɔs.ty.lɑ̃\) and postulats (\pɔs.ty.la\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

postulants is recorded at frequency rank #47,523, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.ty.lɑ̃\. postulats is at rank #45,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.ty.la\.

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 92761, this pair ranks #2,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of postulants vs postulats

Shared letters: alopstu. Private to "postulants": n. Private to "postulats": -.

"postulants" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCC  ·  "postulats" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • postulants ← opstulants · posstulants · postluants · posttulants · postualnts · postulannts · postulanst · postulantss
  • postulats ← opstulats · posstulats · postluats · posttulats · postualts · postulast · postulatss · postulatts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "postulants" and "postulats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɔs.ty.lɑ̃\ versus \pɔs.ty.la\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "postulants" vs "postulats" - which ranks higher?
"postulats" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,238 in our French list, against #47,523 for "postulants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "postulants" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "postulats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "postulants" and "postulats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postulant vs postulants". 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 #2,764 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