prémissevsprémissesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,993
“prémisse” frequency rank
#35,223
“prémisses” frequency rank
74216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prémisse prémisses
Definition Chacune des deux propositions d’un syllogisme, la majeure et la mineure, d’où résulte la conclusion. Pluriel de prémisse.

Same sound, different letters: prémisse vs prémisses

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. prémisse runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against prémisses's 9 (CCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
prémisse
9 ch
prémisses

Homophone desk: prémisse vs prémisses

This is the hard kind. prémisse and prémisses are pronounced identically (\pʁe.mis\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “prémisse” sits inside “prémisses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prémisse is recorded at frequency rank #38,993, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.mis\. prémisses is at rank #35,223, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.mis\.

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 74216, this pair ranks #37,860 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of prémisse vs prémisses

Shared letters: eimprsé. Private to "prémisse": -. Private to "prémisses": -.

"prémisse" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "prémisses" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prémisse" for "prémisses" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁe.mis\), 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, "prémisse" or "prémisses"?
"prémisses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,223 in our French list, against #38,993 for "prémisse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "prémisse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prémisses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,860 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prémisse" and "prémisses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "précisés vs prémisses". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #37,860 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