Which to use
“clac” is an onomatopoeia and “claques” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,310
- “clac” frequency rank
- #21,570
- “claques” frequency rank
- 57880
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clac | claques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Onomatopée qui traduit un bruit sec et rapide. | Pluriel de claque. |
Same sound, different letters: clac vs claques
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - clac and claques
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: clac and claques carry the same recorded pronunciation, \klak\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anonomatopoeia, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clac is recorded at frequency rank #36,310, classified as anonomatopoeia, pronounced \klak\. claques is at rank #21,570, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klak\.
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 57880, this pair ranks #112,381 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clac vs claques
Shared letters: acl. Private to "clac": -. Private to "claques": eqsu.
"clac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "claques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clac" and "claques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "clac" or "claques" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "clac" / "claques". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "clac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "claques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #112,381 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clac" and "claques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs clac". 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 #112,381 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.