poussésvsprouessesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,213
“poussés” frequency rank
#25,088
“prouesses” frequency rank
41301
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poussés prouesses
Definition Pluriel de poussé. Pluriel de prouesse.

Where the eye mixes poussés and prouesses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poussés runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against prouesses's 9 (CCVVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
poussés
9 ch
prouesses

Visual trap between poussés and prouesses

A purely visual mix-up. poussés (\pu.se\) and prouesses (\pʁu.ɛs\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poussés is recorded at frequency rank #16,213, classified as anoun, pronounced \pu.se\. prouesses is at rank #25,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁu.ɛs\.

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 41301, this pair ranks #234,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poussés vs prouesses

Shared letters: opsu. Private to "poussés": é. Private to "prouesses": er.

"poussés" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "prouesses" · 9 letters · shape CCVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prouesses ← poruesses · pprouesses · proeusses · proueses · prouesess · prouessess · prouessse · prouseses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poussés" for "prouesses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pu.se\ versus \pʁu.ɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poussés" vs "prouesses" - which ranks higher?
"poussés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,213 in our French list, against #25,088 for "prouesses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poussés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prouesses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poussés" and "prouesses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poulies vs poussés". 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 #234,122 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