Which to use
“science” and “sciences” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,211
- “science” frequency rank
- #1,238
- “sciences” frequency rank
- 2449
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | science | sciences |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Connaissance, savoir. | Pluriel de science. |
Same sound, different letters: science vs sciences
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Homophone desk: science vs sciences
This is the hard kind. science and sciences are pronounced identically (\sjɑ̃s\) 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) - “science” sits inside “sciences”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
science is recorded at frequency rank #1,211, classified as anoun, pronounced \sjɑ̃s\. sciences is at rank #1,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sjɑ̃s\.
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 2449, this pair ranks #436,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of science vs sciences
Shared letters: ceins. Private to "science": -. Private to "sciences": -.
"science" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV · "sciences" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "science" and "sciences" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "science" or "sciences" show up more?
Useful next steps
"science" and "sciences" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "science" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sciences" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "science" and "sciences" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sciences vs scieries". 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 #436,122 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.