sordidevssordidesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,706
“sordide” frequency rank
#35,284
“sordides” frequency rank
57990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sordide sordides
Definition Qui est sale, repoussant. Pluriel de sordide.

Same sound, different letters: sordide vs sordides

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. sordide runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against sordides's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
sordide
8 ch
sordides

Homophone desk: sordide vs sordides

This is the hard kind. sordide and sordides are pronounced identically (\sɔʁ.did\) 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) - “sordide” sits inside “sordides”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sordide is recorded at frequency rank #22,706, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɔʁ.did\. sordides is at rank #35,284, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɔʁ.did\.

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 57990, this pair ranks #111,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sordide vs sordides

Shared letters: deiors. Private to "sordide": -. Private to "sordides": -.

"sordide" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "sordides" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sordide ← osrdide · sodride · sorddide · sorddie · sordidde · sordied · soridde · sorrdide
  • sordides ← osrdides · sodrides · sorddides · sorddies · sordiddes · sordidess · sordidse · sordieds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sordide" and "sordides" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\sɔʁ.did\), 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, "sordide" or "sordides"?
"sordide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,706 in our French list, against #35,284 for "sordides". 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 "sordide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sordides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #111,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sordide" and "sordides" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sordide vs sourdine". 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 #111,688 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