teamvstermsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,368
“team” frequency rank
#47,644
“terms” frequency rank
51012
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature team terms
Definition Équipe, en particulier (mais pas exclusivement) dans un contexte anglo-saxon. Pluriel de term.

Where the eye mixes team and terms

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
team
5 ch
terms

Visual trap between team and terms

A purely visual mix-up. team (\tim\) and terms ([tɝmz]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

team is recorded at frequency rank #3,368, classified as anoun, pronounced \tim\. terms is at rank #47,644, tagged as anoun, pronounced [tɝmz].

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 51012, this pair ranks #158,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of team vs terms

Shared letters: emt. Private to "team": a. Private to "terms": rs.

"team" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "terms" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teametam · taem · teamm · tema · tteam
  • termsetrms · temrs · termms · termss · terrms · tersm · trems · tterms

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "team" and "terms" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tim\ versus [tɝmz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "team" or "terms"?
"team" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,368 in our French list, against #47,644 for "terms". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "team" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "terms" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "team" and "terms" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terms vs thermos". 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 #158,245 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