Which to use
“écluse” and “écume” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,608
- “écluse” frequency rank
- #26,228
- “écume” frequency rank
- 55836
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écluse | écume |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clôture en forme de bassin, faite de terre, de pierre, de bois ou de toute autre matière dans un port, sur une rivière, sur un canal, etc., ayant une ou plusieurs portes qui se lèvent et se baissent ou qui s’ouvrent et se ferment, pour retenir et pour laisser passer l’eau. | Sorte de mousse blanchâtre qui se forme à la surface des liquides agités, chauffés, ou en fermentation. |
Where the eye mixes écluse and écume
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. écluse runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against écume's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses écluse with écume
A purely visual mix-up. écluse (\e.klyz\) and écume (\e.kym\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écluse is recorded at frequency rank #29,608, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.klyz\. écume is at rank #26,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kym\.
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 55836, this pair ranks #124,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of écluse vs écume
Shared letters: ceué. Private to "écluse": ls. Private to "écume": m.
"écluse" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "écume" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "écluse" and "écume" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "écluse" or "écume"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "écluse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écume" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #124,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écluse" and "écume" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écœuré vs écluse". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #124,916 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.