clochervsclochesTell them apart

Which to use

“clocher” and “cloches” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,224
“clocher” frequency rank
#11,369
“cloches” frequency rank
25593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clocher cloches
Definition Bâtiment de maçonnerie ou de charpente dans lequel sont suspendues les cloches et qui est ordinairement élevé au-dessus d’une église. Pluriel de cloche (instrument).

Where the eye mixes clocher and cloches

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
clocher
7 ch
cloches

Visual trap between clocher and cloches

A purely visual mix-up. clocher (\klɔ.ʃe\) and cloches (\klɔʃ\) 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 - r in “clocher” becomes s in “cloches”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clocher is recorded at frequency rank #14,224, classified as anoun, pronounced \klɔ.ʃe\. cloches is at rank #11,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klɔʃ\.

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 25593, this pair ranks #339,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of clocher vs cloches

Shared letters: cehlo. Private to "clocher": r. Private to "cloches": s.

"clocher" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "cloches" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clochercclocher · clcoher · cllocher · cloccher · clocehr · clocherr · clochher · clochre
  • clochesccloches · clcohes · clloches · clocches · clocehs · clochess · clochhes · clochse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clocher" and "cloches" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\klɔ.ʃe\ versus \klɔʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clocher" vs "cloches" - which ranks higher?
"cloches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,369 in our French list, against #14,224 for "clocher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clocher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cloches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #339,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clocher" and "cloches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cloches vs coaches". 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 #339,974 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list