Which to use
“stèle” and “stèles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,139
- “stèle” frequency rank
- #40,515
- “stèles” frequency rank
- 65654
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stèle | stèles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Monument monolithe ayant la forme d’un fût de colonne, d’un obélisque, d’une dalle dressée et sculptée ou peinte, qui sert le plus souvent à marquer l’emplacement d’une sépulture. | Pluriel de stèle. |
Same sound, different letters: stèle vs stèles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. stèle runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against stèles's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - stèle / stèles
This is the hard kind. stèle and stèles are pronounced identically (\stɛl\) 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) - “stèle” sits inside “stèles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65654, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stèle is recorded at frequency rank #25,139, classified as anoun, pronounced \stɛl\. stèles is at rank #40,515, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɛl\.
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 65654, this pair ranks #71,365 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of stèle vs stèles
Shared letters: elstè. Private to "stèle": -. Private to "stèles": -.
"stèle" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stèles" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "stèle" and "stèles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "stèle" or "stèles" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "stèle" / "stèles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "stèle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stèles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #71,365 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stèle" and "stèles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "socles vs stèles". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #71,365 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.