Which to use
“cloître” and “clôture” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,235
- “cloître” frequency rank
- #5,533
- “clôture” frequency rank
- 24768
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cloître | clôture |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie d’un monastère qu’une clôture sépare du reste du bâtiment. | Enceinte qui peut être constituée de murs, de haies, de barrières, etc. |
Where the eye mixes cloître and clôture
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cloître with clôture
A purely visual mix-up. cloître (\klwatʁ\) and clôture (\klo.tyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24768, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cloître is recorded at frequency rank #19,235, classified as anoun, pronounced \klwatʁ\. clôture is at rank #5,533, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klo.tyʁ\.
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 24768, this pair ranks #344,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cloître vs clôture
Shared letters: celrt. Private to "cloître": oî. Private to "clôture": uô.
"cloître" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV · "clôture" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cloître" and "clôture" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "cloître" or "clôture" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cloître" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clôture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #344,733 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cloître" and "clôture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cloître vs clore". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #344,733 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.