Which to use
“smiley” and “smileys” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,036
- “smiley” frequency rank
- #41,540
- “smileys” frequency rank
- 65576
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | smiley | smileys |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Représentation graphique d’un visage humain souriant, le plus souvent coloré en jaune. | Pluriel de smiley. |
Where the eye mixes smiley and smileys
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. smiley runs 6 letters (CCVCVV) against smileys's 7 (CCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between smiley and smileys
A purely visual mix-up. smiley (\smaj.lɛ\) and smileys (\smaj.li\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “smiley” sits inside “smileys”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
smiley is recorded at frequency rank #24,036, classified as anoun, pronounced \smaj.lɛ\. smileys is at rank #41,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced \smaj.li\.
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 65576, this pair ranks #71,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of smiley vs smileys
Shared letters: eilmsy. Private to "smiley": -. Private to "smileys": -.
"smiley" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV · "smileys" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "smiley" for "smileys" ever safe?
Frequency check: "smiley" vs "smileys" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "smiley" and "smileys" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "smiley" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "smileys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #71,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "smiley" and "smileys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "smileys vs Stiles". 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 #71,712 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.