Which to use
“clef” and “clefs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,063
- “clef” frequency rank
- #8,516
- “clefs” frequency rank
- 14579
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clef | clefs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante orthographique de clé. | Pluriel de clef. |
Same sound, different letters: clef vs clefs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - clef and clefs
This is the hard kind. clef and clefs are pronounced identically (\kle\) 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) - “clef” sits inside “clefs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clef is recorded at frequency rank #6,063, classified as anoun, pronounced \kle\. clefs is at rank #8,516, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kle\.
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 14579, this pair ranks #396,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clef vs clefs
Shared letters: cefl. Private to "clef": -. Private to "clefs": s.
"clef" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "clefs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "clef" and "clefs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "clef" or "clefs" show up more?
What to do next
"clef" and "clefs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "clef" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clefs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clef" and "clefs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs clef". 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 #396,061 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.