œuvrevsœuvresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#764
“œuvre” frequency rank
#2,021
“œuvres” frequency rank
2785
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature œuvre œuvres
Definition Objet créé par un être vivant, manifestation tangible d’une pensée, même infime, réalisation d’un produit, fonctionnel ou non. Pluriel de œuvre (nom féminin).

Same sound, different letters: œuvre vs œuvres

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

5 ch
œuvre
6 ch
œuvres

Ear matches; page differs - œuvre and œuvres

This is the hard kind. œuvre and œuvres are pronounced identically (\œvʁ\) 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) - “œuvre” sits inside “œuvres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

œuvre is recorded at frequency rank #764, classified as anoun, pronounced \œvʁ\. œuvres is at rank #2,021, tagged as anoun, pronounced \œvʁ\.

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 2785, this pair ranks #435,476 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of œuvre vs œuvres

Shared letters: eruvœ. Private to "œuvre": -. Private to "œuvres": s.

"œuvre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "œuvres" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "œuvre" and "œuvres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\œvʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "œuvre" vs "œuvres" - which ranks higher?
"œuvre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #764 in our French list, against #2,021 for "œuvres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "œuvre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "œuvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,476 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "œuvre" and "œuvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "urée vs œuvres". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #435,476 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