cravatevscravatesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cravate is a adjective, cravates is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cravate” is an adjective and “cravates” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,025
“cravate” frequency rank
#32,767
“cravates” frequency rank
43792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cravate cravates
Definition Croate, de Croatie. Pluriel de cravate.

Same sound, different letters: cravate vs cravates

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. cravate runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against cravates's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
cravate
8 ch
cravates

Same sound, different spelling - cravate / cravates

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: cravate and cravates carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kʁa.vat\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “cravate” sits inside “cravates”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cravate is recorded at frequency rank #11,025, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁa.vat\. cravates is at rank #32,767, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁa.vat\.

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 43792, this pair ranks #215,365 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cravate vs cravates

Shared letters: acertv. Private to "cravate": -. Private to "cravates": s.

"cravate" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "cravates" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cravate ← carvate · ccravate · craavte · cravaet · cravatte · cravtae · cravvate · crravate
  • cravates ← carvates · ccravates · craavtes · cravaets · cravatess · cravatse · cravattes · cravtaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cravate" and "cravates" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cravate" is an adjective and "cravates" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cravate" vs "cravates" - which ranks higher?
"cravate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,025 in our French list, against #32,767 for "cravates". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cravate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cravates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #215,365 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cravate" and "cravates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cravache vs cravate". 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 #215,365 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