pubisvspublicsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pubis is a noun, publics is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pubis” is a noun and “publics” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,256
“pubis” frequency rank
#1,234
“publics” frequency rank
46490
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pubis publics
Definition Os situé à la partie antérieure et supérieure du bassin, l'un des trois os pelviens (soudés pour former l’os coxal). Masculin pluriel de public.

Where the eye mixes pubis and publics

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pubis runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against publics's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pubis
7 ch
publics

Visual trap between pubis and publics

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pubis is \py.bis\ while publics is \py.blik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pubis is recorded at frequency rank #45,256, classified as anoun, pronounced \py.bis\. publics is at rank #1,234, tagged as anadj, pronounced \py.blik\.

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 46490, this pair ranks #194,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pubis vs publics

Shared letters: bipsu. Private to "pubis": -. Private to "publics": cl.

"pubis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "publics" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pubis ← pbuis · ppubis · pubbis · pubiss · pubsi · puibs · upbis
  • publics ← pbulics · ppublics · pubblics · pubilcs · publcis · publiccs · publicss · publisc

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pubis" for "publics" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pubis" is a noun and "publics" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pubis" vs "publics" - which ranks higher?
"publics" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,234 in our French list, against #45,256 for "pubis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pubis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "publics" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #194,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pubis" and "publics" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pubis vs purin". 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 #194,514 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