tempevstempesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,706
“tempe” frequency rank
#46,482
“tempes” frequency rank
70188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tempe tempes
Definition Partie latérale de la tête entre l’oreille et le front. Pluriel de tempe.

Same sound, different letters: tempe vs tempes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. tempe runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tempes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
tempe
6 ch
tempes

Homophone desk: tempe vs tempes

This is the hard kind. tempe and tempes are pronounced identically (\tɑ̃p\) 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) - “tempe” sits inside “tempes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tempe is recorded at frequency rank #23,706, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃p\. tempes is at rank #46,482, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃p\.

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 70188, this pair ranks #52,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tempe vs tempes

Shared letters: empt. Private to "tempe": -. Private to "tempes": s.

"tempe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tempes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tempe ← etmpe · temep · temmpe · temppe · tepme · tmepe · ttempe
  • tempes ← etmpes · temeps · temmpes · tempess · temppes · tempse · tepmes · tmepes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tempe" and "tempes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\tɑ̃p\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "tempe" vs "tempes" - which ranks higher?
"tempe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,706 in our French list, against #46,482 for "tempes". 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 "tempe" / "tempes". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tempe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tempes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tempe" and "tempes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tempes vs trempés". 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 #52,312 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