supérieurevssupérieursWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,788
“supérieure” frequency rank
#4,995
“supérieurs” frequency rank
6783
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature supérieure supérieurs
Definition Celle qui est située au-dessus. Masculin pluriel de supérieur.

Same sound, different letters: supérieure vs supérieurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. supérieure (CVCVCVVVCV) and supérieurs (CVCVCVVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
supérieure
10 ch
supérieurs

Ear matches; page differs - supérieure and supérieurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: supérieure and supérieurs 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 a single letter - e in “supérieure” becomes s in “supérieurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6783, 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\. supérieurs is at rank #4,995, 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 6783, this pair ranks #425,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of supérieure vs supérieurs

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

"supérieure" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCV  ·  "supérieurs" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "supérieure" for "supérieurs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "supérieure" is a noun and "supérieurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "supérieure" or "supérieurs" show up more?
"supérieure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,788 in our French list, against #4,995 for "supérieurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "supérieure" / "supérieurs". 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 "supérieurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "supérieure" and "supérieurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "supérieurs vs superviseurs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #425,243 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