vipèrevsvipèresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,021
“vipère” frequency rank
#43,721
“vipères” frequency rank
73742
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vipère vipères
Definition Une des espèces de serpents de taille modérée, à tête triangulaire aux nombreuses petites écailles, à pupilles elliptiques et à queue courte. Pluriel de vipère.

Same sound, different letters: vipère vs vipères

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. vipère runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against vipères's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
vipère
7 ch
vipères

Ear matches; page differs - vipère and vipères

This is the hard kind. vipère and vipères are pronounced identically (\vi.pɛʁ\) 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) - “vipère” sits inside “vipères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vipère is recorded at frequency rank #30,021, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.pɛʁ\. vipères is at rank #43,721, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.pɛʁ\.

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 73742, this pair ranks #39,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vipère vs vipères

Shared letters: eiprvè. Private to "vipère": -. Private to "vipères": s.

"vipère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "vipères" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vipère" for "vipères" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\vi.pɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "vipère" vs "vipères" - which ranks higher?
"vipère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,021 in our French list, against #43,721 for "vipères". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "vipère" / "vipères". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vipère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vipères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vipère" and "vipères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vipères vs virées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,440 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