conclavevsconclureWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: conclave is a noun, conclure is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“conclave” is a noun and “conclure” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,475
“conclave” frequency rank
#4,560
“conclure” frequency rank
39035
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conclave conclure
Definition Lieu où sont enfermés les cardinaux âgés de moins de 80 ans réunis en assemblée pour élire le pape. Arrêter ; fixer définitivement.

Where the eye mixes conclave and conclure

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

8 ch
conclave
8 ch
conclure

Visual trap between conclave and conclure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: conclave is \kɔ̃.klav\ while conclure is \kɔ̃.klyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conclave is recorded at frequency rank #34,475, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.klav\. conclure is at rank #4,560, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.klyʁ\.

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 39035, this pair ranks #250,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of conclave vs conclure

Shared letters: celno. Private to "conclave": av. Private to "conclure": ru.

"conclave" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV  ·  "conclure" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conclavecconclave · cnoclave · cocnlave · concalve · concclave · conclaev · conclavve · concllave
  • conclurecconclure · cnoclure · cocnlure · concclure · concllure · conclrue · concluer · conclurre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "conclave" for "conclure" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "conclave" is a noun and "conclure" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "conclave" vs "conclure" - which ranks higher?
"conclure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,560 in our French list, against #34,475 for "conclave". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "conclave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conclure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conclave" and "conclure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concave vs conclave". 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 #250,977 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