Which to use
“protection” and “protections” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,095
- “protection” frequency rank
- #14,770
- “protections” frequency rank
- 15865
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | protection | protections |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de protéger, de défendre quelqu’un, de veiller à ce qu’il ne lui arrive pas de mal. | Pluriel de protection. |
Same sound, different letters: protection vs protections
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. protection runs 10 letters (CCVCVCCVVC) against protections's 11 (CCVCVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: protection vs protections
This is the hard kind. protection and protections are pronounced identically (\pʁɔ.tɛk.sjɔ̃\) 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) - “protection” sits inside “protections”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
protection is recorded at frequency rank #1,095, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.tɛk.sjɔ̃\. protections is at rank #14,770, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.tɛk.sjɔ̃\.
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 15865, this pair ranks #390,508 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of protection vs protections
Shared letters: ceinoprt. Private to "protection": -. Private to "protections": s.
"protection" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVC · "protections" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- protection ← portection · pprotection · proetction · protcetion · protecction · proteciton · protectino · protectionn
- protections ← portections · pprotections · proetctions · protcetions · protecctions · protecitons · protectinos · protectionns
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "protection" and "protections" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "protection" or "protections"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "protection" / "protections". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "protection" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "protections" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #390,508 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "protection" and "protections" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prétentions vs protections". 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 #390,508 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.