Which to use
“tendon” and “tendons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,892
- “tendon” frequency rank
- #30,837
- “tendons” frequency rank
- 57729
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tendon | tendons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie fibreuse, blanchâtre, ronde ou aplatie, qui forme l’extrémité des muscles et qui sert à les attacher aux os ou à d’autres parties. | Pluriel de tendon. |
Same sound, different letters: tendon vs tendons
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. tendon runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against tendons's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - tendon and tendons
This is the hard kind. tendon and tendons are pronounced identically (\tɑ̃.dɔ̃\) 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) - “tendon” sits inside “tendons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tendon is recorded at frequency rank #26,892, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃.dɔ̃\. tendons is at rank #30,837, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃.dɔ̃\.
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 57729, this pair ranks #113,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tendon vs tendons
Shared letters: denot. Private to "tendon": -. Private to "tendons": s.
"tendon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "tendons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tendon" and "tendons" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "tendon" vs "tendons" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "tendon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tendons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tendon" and "tendons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tendons vs tessons". 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 #113,309 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.