terminalvsterminalesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,167
“terminal” frequency rank
#27,635
“terminales” frequency rank
35802
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terminal terminales
Definition Qui termine une chose, qui en occupe ou en forme l’extrémité. Féminin pluriel de terminal.

Same sound, different letters: terminal vs terminales

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. terminal runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against terminales's 10 (CVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
terminal
10 ch
terminales

Ear matches; page differs - terminal and terminales

This is the hard kind. terminal and terminales are pronounced identically (\tɛʁ.mi.nal\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “terminal” sits inside “terminales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terminal is recorded at frequency rank #8,167, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɛʁ.mi.nal\. terminales is at rank #27,635, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɛʁ.mi.nal\.

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 35802, this pair ranks #274,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of terminal vs terminales

Shared letters: aeilmnrt. Private to "terminal": -. Private to "terminales": s.

"terminal" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "terminales" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terminal ← etrminal · temrinal · terimnal · termianl · terminall · terminla · terminnal · termminal
  • terminales ← etrminales · temrinales · terimnales · termianles · terminaels · terminaless · terminalles · terminalse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "terminal" and "terminales" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\tɛʁ.mi.nal\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "terminal" vs "terminales" - which ranks higher?
"terminal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,167 in our French list, against #27,635 for "terminales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terminal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "terminales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terminal" and "terminales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terminal vs terminez". 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 #274,128 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