Which to use
“barreau” and “barreaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,455
- “barreau” frequency rank
- #13,331
- “barreaux” frequency rank
- 23786
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barreau | barreaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Barre de bois ou de fer qui sert de clôture. | Pluriel de barreau. |
Same sound, different letters: barreau vs barreaux
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. barreau runs 7 letters (CVCCVVV) against barreaux's 8 (CVCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - barreau / barreaux
This is the hard kind. barreau and barreaux are pronounced identically (\ba.ʁo\) 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) - “barreau” sits inside “barreaux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barreau is recorded at frequency rank #10,455, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.ʁo\. barreaux is at rank #13,331, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.ʁo\.
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 23786, this pair ranks #350,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of barreau vs barreaux
Shared letters: aberu. Private to "barreau": -. Private to "barreaux": x.
"barreau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV · "barreaux" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "barreau" and "barreaux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "barreau" or "barreaux"?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "barreau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barreaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #350,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barreau" and "barreaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barbeau vs barreaux". 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 #350,467 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.