Which to use
“waters” and “winters” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,193
- “waters” frequency rank
- #45,383
- “winters” frequency rank
- 74576
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | waters | winters |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de water. Les toilettes. | Pluriel de winter. |
Where the eye mixes waters and winters
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. waters runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against winters's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses waters with winters
A purely visual mix-up. waters (\wa.tɛʁ\) and winters (\ˈwɪntə(ɹ)z\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
waters is recorded at frequency rank #29,193, classified as anoun, pronounced \wa.tɛʁ\. winters is at rank #45,383, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈwɪntə(ɹ)z\.
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 74576, this pair ranks #36,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of waters vs winters
Shared letters: erstw. Private to "waters": a. Private to "winters": in.
"waters" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "winters" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "waters" for "winters" ever safe?
Which is more common, "waters" or "winters"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "waters" and "winters" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "waters" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "winters" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #36,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "waters" and "winters" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Walters vs winters". 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 #36,713 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.