régulateurvsrégulateursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,055
“régulateur” frequency rank
#27,610
“régulateurs” frequency rank
40665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature régulateur régulateurs
Definition Qui sert de règle, qui régularise. Masculin pluriel de régulateur.

Same sound, different letters: régulateur vs régulateurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. régulateur runs 10 letters (CVCVCVCVVC) against régulateurs's 11 (CVCVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
régulateur
11 ch
régulateurs

Ear matches; page differs - régulateur and régulateurs

This is the hard kind. régulateur and régulateurs are pronounced identically (\ʁe.ɡy.la.tœʁ\) 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) - “régulateur” sits inside “régulateurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

régulateur is recorded at frequency rank #13,055, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.ɡy.la.tœʁ\. régulateurs is at rank #27,610, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.ɡy.la.tœʁ\.

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 40665, this pair ranks #238,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of régulateur vs régulateurs

Shared letters: aeglrtué. Private to "régulateur": -. Private to "régulateurs": s.

"régulateur" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVC  ·  "régulateurs" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "régulateur" and "régulateurs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁe.ɡy.la.tœʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "régulateur" vs "régulateurs" - which ranks higher?
"régulateur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,055 in our French list, against #27,610 for "régulateurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"régulateur" and "régulateurs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "régulateur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "régulateurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "régulateur" and "régulateurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "régulateurs vs révélateurs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #238,873 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