punitionvspunitionsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,605
“punition” frequency rank
#25,452
“punitions” frequency rank
34057
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature punition punitions
Definition Action de punir, d’infliger une correction à quelqu’un. Pluriel de punition.

Same sound, different letters: punition vs punitions

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. punition runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against punitions's 9 (CVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
punition
9 ch
punitions

Ear matches; page differs - punition and punitions

This is the hard kind. punition and punitions are pronounced identically (\py.ni.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) - “punition” sits inside “punitions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

punition is recorded at frequency rank #8,605, classified as anoun, pronounced \py.ni.sjɔ̃\. punitions is at rank #25,452, tagged as anoun, pronounced \py.ni.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 34057, this pair ranks #286,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of punition vs punitions

Shared letters: inoptu. Private to "punition": -. Private to "punitions": s.

"punition" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "punitions" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • punition ← pnuition · ppunition · puintion · puniiton · punitino · punitionn · punitoin · punittion
  • punitions ← pnuitions · ppunitions · puintions · puniitons · punitinos · punitionns · punitionss · punitiosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "punition" and "punitions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\py.ni.sjɔ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "punition" vs "punitions" - which ranks higher?
"punition" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,605 in our French list, against #25,452 for "punitions". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "punition" / "punitions". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "punition" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "punitions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #286,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "punition" and "punitions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "punition vs punitive". 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 #286,460 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