télésvstermsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,420
“télés” frequency rank
#47,644
“terms” frequency rank
72064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature télés terms
Definition Pluriel de télé. Pluriel de term.

Where the eye mixes télés and terms

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. télés (CVCVC) and terms (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
télés
5 ch
terms

Why the eye confuses télés with terms

A purely visual mix-up. télés (\te.le\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

télés is recorded at frequency rank #24,420, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.le\. 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 72064, this pair ranks #45,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of télés vs terms

Shared letters: st. Private to "télés": lé. Private to "terms": emr.

"télés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "terms" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terms ← etrms · temrs · termms · termss · terrms · tersm · trems · tterms

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "télés" for "terms" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\te.le\ versus [tɝmz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "télés" or "terms" show up more?
"télés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,420 in our French list, against #47,644 for "terms". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "télés" 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 #45,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "télés" 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 #45,344 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