républiquevsrépubliquesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#710
“république” frequency rank
#18,054
“républiques” frequency rank
18764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature république républiques
Definition Chose publique, intérêt général. Pluriel de république.

Same sound, different letters: république vs républiques

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

10 ch
république
11 ch
républiques

Ear matches; page differs - république and républiques

This is the hard kind. république and républiques are pronounced identically (\ʁe.py.blik\) 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) - “république” sits inside “républiques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

république is recorded at frequency rank #710, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.py.blik\. républiques is at rank #18,054, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.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 18764, this pair ranks #376,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of république vs républiques

Shared letters: beilpqrué. Private to "république": -. Private to "républiques": s.

"république" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVV  ·  "républiques" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "république" and "républiques" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁe.py.blik\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "république" or "républiques" show up more?
"république" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #710 in our French list, against #18,054 for "républiques". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "république" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "républiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,684 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "république" and "républiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "répliques vs républiques". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #376,684 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