télégrammevstélégrammesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,761
“télégramme” frequency rank
#46,506
“télégrammes” frequency rank
63267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature télégramme télégrammes
Definition Dépêche transmise par le télégraphe. Pluriel de télégramme.

Same sound, different letters: télégramme vs télégrammes

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

10 ch
télégramme
11 ch
télégrammes

Same sound, different spelling - télégramme / télégrammes

This is the hard kind. télégramme and télégrammes are pronounced identically (\te.le.ɡʁam\) 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) - “télégramme” sits inside “télégrammes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

télégramme is recorded at frequency rank #16,761, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.le.ɡʁam\. télégrammes is at rank #46,506, tagged as anoun, pronounced \te.le.ɡʁam\.

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 63267, this pair ranks #82,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of télégramme vs télégrammes

Shared letters: aeglmrté. Private to "télégramme": -. Private to "télégrammes": s.

"télégramme" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCV  ·  "télégrammes" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "télégramme" and "télégrammes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\te.le.ɡʁam\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "télégramme" vs "télégrammes" - which ranks higher?
"télégramme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,761 in our French list, against #46,506 for "télégrammes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "télégramme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "télégrammes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #82,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "télégramme" and "télégrammes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "telegram vs télégramme". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #82,848 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