éclaireurvséclaireursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,212
“éclaireur” frequency rank
#30,032
“éclaireurs” frequency rank
66244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éclaireur éclaireurs
Definition Soldat qui éclaire les autres, qu’on envoie devant pour observer la situation et la configuration des lieux afin de rapporter des informations utiles à ceux qui sont restés en arrière. Pluriel de éclaireur.

Same sound, different letters: éclaireur vs éclaireurs

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

9 ch
éclaireur
10 ch
éclaireurs

Homophone desk: éclaireur vs éclaireurs

This is the hard kind. éclaireur and éclaireurs are pronounced identically (\e.klɛ.ʁœʁ\) 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) - “éclaireur” sits inside “éclaireurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éclaireur is recorded at frequency rank #36,212, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.klɛ.ʁœʁ\. éclaireurs is at rank #30,032, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.klɛ.ʁœʁ\.

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 66244, this pair ranks #68,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of éclaireur vs éclaireurs

Shared letters: aceilrué. Private to "éclaireur": -. Private to "éclaireurs": s.

"éclaireur" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVVC  ·  "éclaireurs" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "éclaireur" and "éclaireurs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.klɛ.ʁœʁ\), 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, "éclaireur" or "éclaireurs"?
"éclaireurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,032 in our French list, against #36,212 for "éclaireur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "éclaireur" / "éclaireurs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éclaireur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "éclaireurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éclaireur" and "éclaireurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éclairent vs éclaireur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #68,642 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