terrifiantvsterrifiantsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,574
“terrifiant” frequency rank
#49,971
“terrifiants” frequency rank
67545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terrifiant terrifiants
Definition Qui provoque une réaction de terreur ; qui engendre la terreur. Masculin pluriel de terrifiant.

Same sound, different letters: terrifiant vs terrifiants

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. terrifiant runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVVCC) against terrifiants's 11 (CVCCVCVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
terrifiant
11 ch
terrifiants

Ear matches; page differs - terrifiant and terrifiants

This is the hard kind. terrifiant and terrifiants are pronounced identically (\tɛ.ʁi.fjɑ̃\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “terrifiant” sits inside “terrifiants”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terrifiant is recorded at frequency rank #17,574, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɛ.ʁi.fjɑ̃\. terrifiants is at rank #49,971, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɛ.ʁi.fjɑ̃\.

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 67545, this pair ranks #62,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of terrifiant vs terrifiants

Shared letters: aefinrt. Private to "terrifiant": -. Private to "terrifiants": s.

"terrifiant" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCC  ·  "terrifiants" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terrifiant ← etrrifiant · terifiant · terirfiant · terrfiiant · terrifaint · terriffiant · terrifiannt · terrifiantt
  • terrifiants ← etrrifiants · terifiants · terirfiants · terrfiiants · terrifaints · terriffiants · terrifiannts · terrifianst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "terrifiant" for "terrifiants" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\tɛ.ʁi.fjɑ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "terrifiant" or "terrifiants" show up more?
"terrifiant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,574 in our French list, against #49,971 for "terrifiants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"terrifiant" and "terrifiants" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terrifiant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "terrifiants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terrifiant" and "terrifiants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terrifiante vs terrifiants". 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 #62,948 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