violeurvsvoleursConfusable pair

Quick tell: violeur is a noun, voleurs is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“violeur” is a noun and “voleurs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,937
“violeur” frequency rank
#7,771
“voleurs” frequency rank
21708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature violeur voleurs
Definition Quelqu’un, généralement un homme, qui commet un viol. Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif voleur.

Where the eye mixes violeur and voleurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. violeur (CVVCVVC) and voleurs (CVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
violeur
7 ch
voleurs

Visual trap between violeur and voleurs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: violeur is \vjɔ.lœʁ\ while voleurs is \vɔ.lœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

violeur is recorded at frequency rank #13,937, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɔ.lœʁ\. voleurs is at rank #7,771, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vɔ.lœʁ\.

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 21708, this pair ranks #361,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of violeur vs voleurs

Shared letters: eloruv. Private to "violeur": i. Private to "voleurs": s.

"violeur" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "voleurs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • violeurivoleur · viloeur · vioelur · violeru · violeurr · violleur · violuer · voileur
  • voleursovleurs · vloeurs · voelurs · volerus · voleurrs · voleurss · voleusr · volleurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "violeur" and "voleurs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "violeur" is a noun and "voleurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "violeur" or "voleurs"?
"voleurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,771 in our French list, against #13,937 for "violeur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "violeur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voleurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #361,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "violeur" and "voleurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vibreur vs violeur". 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 #361,830 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