Which to use
“claques” and “cliques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,570
- “claques” frequency rank
- #28,486
- “cliques” frequency rank
- 50056
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | claques | cliques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de claque. | Nom par lequel on désignait des sabots de bois dans certaines provinces. |
Where the eye mixes claques and cliques
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. claques and cliques follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: claques vs cliques
A purely visual mix-up. claques (\klak\) and cliques (\klik\) 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 a single letter - a in “claques” becomes i in “cliques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50056, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
claques is recorded at frequency rank #21,570, classified as anoun, pronounced \klak\. cliques is at rank #28,486, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klik\.
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 50056, this pair ranks #165,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of claques vs cliques
Shared letters: celqsu. Private to "claques": a. Private to "cliques": i.
"claques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC · "cliques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "claques" for "cliques" ever safe?
Frequency check: "claques" vs "cliques" - which ranks higher?
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 "claques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cliques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #165,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "claques" and "cliques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "claquée vs cliques". 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 #165,641 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.