éclaircievséclairciesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: éclaircie is a noun, éclaircies is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#36,211
“éclaircie” frequency rank
#39,112
“éclaircies” frequency rank
75323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éclaircie éclaircies
Definition Endroit clair qui paraît au ciel en temps de brume ou entre des nuages. Féminin pluriel de éclairci.

Same sound, different letters: éclaircie vs éclaircies

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. éclaircie runs 9 letters (VCCVVCCVV) against éclaircies's 10 (VCCVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
éclaircie
10 ch
éclaircies

Same sound, different spelling - éclaircie / éclaircies

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: éclaircie and éclaircies carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.klɛʁ.si\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “éclaircie” sits inside “éclaircies”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éclaircie is recorded at frequency rank #36,211, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.klɛʁ.si\. éclaircies is at rank #39,112, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.klɛʁ.si\.

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 75323, this pair ranks #34,424 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of éclaircie vs éclaircies

Shared letters: aceilré. Private to "éclaircie": -. Private to "éclaircies": s.

"éclaircie" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVV  ·  "éclaircies" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "éclaircie" and "éclaircies" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "éclaircie" is a noun and "éclaircies" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "éclaircie" or "éclaircies"?
"éclaircie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,211 in our French list, against #39,112 for "éclaircies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"éclaircie" and "éclaircies" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éclaircie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "éclaircies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,424 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éclaircie" and "éclaircies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éclairci vs éclaircies". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #34,424 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