princessvsprincessesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,483
“princess” frequency rank
#15,465
“princesses” frequency rank
44948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature princess princesses
Definition Princesse. Pluriel de princesse.

Where the eye mixes princess and princesses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. princess runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCC) against princesses's 10 (CCVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
princess
10 ch
princesses

Why the eye confuses princess with princesses

A purely visual mix-up. princess (\ˈpɹɪn.sɛs\) and princesses (\pʁɛ̃.sɛs\) 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 extra letter(s) - “princess” sits inside “princesses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

princess is recorded at frequency rank #29,483, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɹɪn.sɛs\. princesses is at rank #15,465, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛ̃.sɛs\.

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 44948, this pair ranks #206,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of princess vs princesses

Shared letters: ceinprs. Private to "princess": -. Private to "princesses": -.

"princess" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "princesses" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • princess ← pirncess · pprincess · pricness · princcess · princses · prinecss · prinncess · prnicess
  • princesses ← pirncesses · pprincesses · pricnesses · princcesses · princesess · princessess · princessse · princseses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "princess" for "princesses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈpɹɪn.sɛs\ versus \pʁɛ̃.sɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "princess" vs "princesses" - which ranks higher?
"princesses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,465 in our French list, against #29,483 for "princess". 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 "princess" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "princesses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "princess" and "princesses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "princess vs process". 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 #206,596 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