clôture vs clôtures, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#5,533
“clôture” frequency rank: #25,929
“clôtures” frequency rank: 31462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	clôture	clôtures
Definition	Enceinte qui peut être constituée de murs, de haies, de barrières, etc.	Pluriel de clôture.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set clôture and clôtures apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

clôture

8 ch

clôtures

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. clôture and clôtures are pronounced identically (\klo.tyʁ\) 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) - “clôture” sits inside “clôtures”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clôture is recorded at frequency rank #5,533, classified as anoun, pronounced \klo.tyʁ\. clôtures is at rank #25,929, 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 31462, this pair ranks #303,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clôture vs clôtures

Shared letters: celrtuô. Private to "clôture": -. Private to "clôtures": s.

"clôture" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "clôtures" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Frequency comparison

clôture#5,533

clôtures#25,929

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clôture" and "clôtures" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (\klo.tyʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "clôture" or "clôtures"?

"clôture" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,533 in our French list, against #25,929 for "clôtures". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering clôture vs clôtures

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “clôture” entry
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