sortilègevssortilègesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,981
“sortilège” frequency rank
#35,734
“sortilèges” frequency rank
65715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sortilège sortilèges
Definition Action de jeter un sort ; maléfice, artifice de sorcier. Pluriel de sortilège.

Same sound, different letters: sortilège vs sortilèges

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

9 ch
sortilège
10 ch
sortilèges

Same sound, different spelling - sortilège / sortilèges

This is the hard kind. sortilège and sortilèges are pronounced identically (\sɔʁ.ti.lɛʒ\) 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) - “sortilège” sits inside “sortilèges”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sortilège is recorded at frequency rank #29,981, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔʁ.ti.lɛʒ\. sortilèges is at rank #35,734, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔʁ.ti.lɛʒ\.

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 65715, this pair ranks #71,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sortilège vs sortilèges

Shared letters: egilorstè. Private to "sortilège": -. Private to "sortilèges": -.

"sortilège" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "sortilèges" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sortilège" for "sortilèges" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\sɔʁ.ti.lɛʒ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "sortilège" vs "sortilèges" - which ranks higher?
"sortilège" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,981 in our French list, against #35,734 for "sortilèges". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sortilège" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sortilèges" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,084 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #71,084 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