télésvsthèsesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,420
“télés” frequency rank
#10,958
“thèses” frequency rank
35378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature télés thèses
Definition Pluriel de télé. Pluriel de thèse.

Where the eye mixes télés and thèses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
télés
6 ch
thèses

Visual trap between télés and thèses

A purely visual mix-up. télés (\te.le\) and thèses (\tɛz\) 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 35378, 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\. thèses is at rank #10,958, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛz\.

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 35378, this pair ranks #277,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of télés vs thèses

Shared letters: st. Private to "télés": . Private to "thèses": ehè.

"télés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "thèses" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "télés" for "thèses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\te.le\ versus \tɛz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "télés" vs "thèses" - which ranks higher?
"thèses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,958 in our French list, against #24,420 for "télés". 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 "thèses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #277,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "télés" and "thèses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "télés vs terms". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #277,166 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