pousséevspoussésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,802
“poussée” frequency rank
#16,213
“poussés” frequency rank
22015
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poussée poussés
Definition Action de pousser. Pluriel de poussé.

Same sound, different letters: poussée vs poussés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. poussée (CVVCCVV) and poussés (CVVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
poussée
7 ch
poussés

Ear matches; page differs - poussée and poussés

This is the hard kind. poussée and poussés are pronounced identically (\pu.se\) 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 a single letter - e in “poussée” becomes s in “poussés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poussée is recorded at frequency rank #5,802, classified as anoun, pronounced \pu.se\. poussés is at rank #16,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.se\.

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 22015, this pair ranks #360,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of poussée vs poussés

Shared letters: opsué. Private to "poussée": e. Private to "poussés": -.

"poussée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV  ·  "poussés" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poussée" for "poussés" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pu.se\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "poussée" or "poussés"?
"poussée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,802 in our French list, against #16,213 for "poussés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "poussée" / "poussés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poussée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poussés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #360,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poussée" and "poussés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poulies vs poussés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #360,239 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