profilvsprofilsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,241
“profil” frequency rank
#8,291
“profils” frequency rank
10532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature profil profils
Definition Contour, ligne du visage d’une personne, d’un animal ou d’une chose, vu de côté. Pluriel de profil.

Same sound, different letters: profil vs profils

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
profil
7 ch
profils

Same sound, different spelling - profil / profils

This is the hard kind. profil and profils are pronounced identically (\pʁɔ.fil\) 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) - “profil” sits inside “profils”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

profil is recorded at frequency rank #2,241, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.fil\. profils is at rank #8,291, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.fil\.

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 10532, this pair ranks #412,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of profil vs profils

Shared letters: filopr. Private to "profil": -. Private to "profils": s.

"profil" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "profils" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • profilporfil · pprofil · prfoil · proffil · profill · profli · proifl · prrofil
  • profilsporfils · pprofils · prfoils · proffils · profills · profilss · profisl · proflis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "profil" and "profils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁɔ.fil\), 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, "profil" or "profils"?
"profil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,241 in our French list, against #8,291 for "profils". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "profil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "profils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "profil" and "profils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "profiler vs profils". 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 #412,636 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