Which to use
“thermes” and “thermos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,053
- “thermes” frequency rank
- #49,973
- “thermos” frequency rank
- 74026
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thermes | thermos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Établissement de bains publics chauds, qui comprenait souvent des palestres, des gymnases, des bibliothèques, des jardins, etc. | Récipient isolant conservant la température d’un liquide pendant quelques heures. |
Where the eye mixes thermes and thermos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. thermes and thermos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses thermes with thermos
A purely visual mix-up. thermes (\tɛʁm\) and thermos (\tɛʁ.mɔs\) 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 a single letter - e in “thermes” becomes o in “thermos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74026, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thermes is recorded at frequency rank #24,053, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁm\. thermos is at rank #49,973, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁ.mɔs\.
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 74026, this pair ranks #38,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thermes vs thermos
Shared letters: ehmrst. Private to "thermes": -. Private to "thermos": o.
"thermes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "thermos" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thermes" and "thermos" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "thermes" or "thermos"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thermes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thermos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thermes" and "thermos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terms vs thermos". 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 #38,507 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.