supérieurevssupérieuresWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: supérieure is a noun, supérieures is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“supérieure” is a noun and “supérieures” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,788
“supérieure” frequency rank
#5,404
“supérieures” frequency rank
7192
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature supérieure supérieures
Definition Celle qui est située au-dessus. Féminin pluriel de supérieur.

Same sound, different letters: supérieure vs supérieures

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. supérieure runs 10 letters (CVCVCVVVCV) against supérieures's 11 (CVCVCVVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
supérieure
11 ch
supérieures

Ear matches; page differs - supérieure and supérieures

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: supérieure and supérieures carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sy.pe.ʁjœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “supérieure” sits inside “supérieures”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

supérieure is recorded at frequency rank #1,788, classified as anoun, pronounced \sy.pe.ʁjœʁ\. supérieures is at rank #5,404, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sy.pe.ʁjœʁ\.

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 7192, this pair ranks #423,907 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of supérieure vs supérieures

Shared letters: eiprsué. Private to "supérieure": -. Private to "supérieures": -.

"supérieure" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCV  ·  "supérieures" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "supérieure" for "supérieures" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "supérieure" is a noun and "supérieures" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "supérieure" or "supérieures"?
"supérieure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,788 in our French list, against #5,404 for "supérieures". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "supérieure" / "supérieures". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "supérieure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "supérieures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #423,907 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "supérieure" and "supérieures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "supérieures vs supérieurs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #423,907 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