rectanglevsrectanglesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#18,300
“rectangle” frequency rank
#40,955
“rectangles” frequency rank
59255
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rectangle rectangles
Definition Se dit d’un triangle qui a un angle droit. Pluriel de rectangle.

Same sound, different letters: rectangle vs rectangles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. rectangle runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCCV) against rectangles's 10 (CVCCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
rectangle
10 ch
rectangles

Same sound, different spelling - rectangle / rectangles

This is the hard kind. rectangle and rectangles are pronounced identically (\ʁɛk.tɑ̃ɡl\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “rectangle” sits inside “rectangles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59255, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rectangle is recorded at frequency rank #18,300, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛk.tɑ̃ɡl\. rectangles is at rank #40,955, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛk.tɑ̃ɡl\.

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 59255, this pair ranks #104,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rectangle vs rectangles

Shared letters: aceglnrt. Private to "rectangle": -. Private to "rectangles": s.

"rectangle" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV  ·  "rectangles" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rectangle ← erctangle · rcetangle · recatngle · recctangle · rectagnle · rectangel · rectanggle · rectanglle
  • rectangles ← erctangles · rcetangles · recatngles · recctangles · rectagnles · rectangels · rectanggles · rectangless

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rectangle" for "rectangles" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁɛk.tɑ̃ɡl\), 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, "rectangle" or "rectangles"?
"rectangle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,300 in our French list, against #40,955 for "rectangles". 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 "rectangle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rectangles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rectangle" and "rectangles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rechange vs rectangle". 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 #104,194 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