éclatvséclatsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,389
“éclat” frequency rank
#11,154
“éclats” frequency rank
18543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éclat éclats
Definition Partie détachée brusquement d’un corps qui éclate. Pluriel de éclat.

Same sound, different letters: éclat vs éclats

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
éclat
6 ch
éclats

Same sound, different spelling - éclat / éclats

This is the hard kind. éclat and éclats are pronounced identically (\e.kla\) 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) - “éclat” sits inside “éclats”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éclat is recorded at frequency rank #7,389, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kla\. éclats is at rank #11,154, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kla\.

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 18543, this pair ranks #377,783 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of éclat vs éclats

Shared letters: aclté. Private to "éclat": -. Private to "éclats": s.

"éclat" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "éclats" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "éclat" and "éclats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.kla\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "éclat" vs "éclats" - which ranks higher?
"éclat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,389 in our French list, against #11,154 for "éclats". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "éclat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "éclats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #377,783 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éclat" and "éclats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éclat vs ela". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #377,783 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