Which to use
“prison” and “prisons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #951
- “prison” frequency rank
- #7,355
- “prisons” frequency rank
- 8306
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | prison | prisons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Endroit clos où sont enfermées les personnes condamnées à une peine de privation de liberté ou les prévenus en attente de jugement. | Pluriel de prison. |
Same sound, different letters: prison vs prisons
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Homophone desk: prison vs prisons
This is the hard kind. prison and prisons are pronounced identically (\pʁi.zɔ̃\) 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) - “prison” sits inside “prisons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
prison is recorded at frequency rank #951, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁi.zɔ̃\. prisons is at rank #7,355, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁi.zɔ̃\.
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 8306, this pair ranks #420,468 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of prison vs prisons
Shared letters: inoprs. Private to "prison": -. Private to "prisons": -.
"prison" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "prisons" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "prison" and "prisons" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "prison" vs "prisons" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "prison" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prisons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #420,468 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "prison" and "prisons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parions vs prisons". 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 #420,468 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.