Which to use
“écluse” and “enclume” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,608
- “écluse” frequency rank
- #37,790
- “enclume” frequency rank
- 67398
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écluse | enclume |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Masse de fer, ordinairement portée par un bloc de bois, sur laquelle on bat le fer, l’argent et les autres métaux, pour leur donner une certaine forme, ou pour les écrouir. |
Where the eye mixes écluse and enclume
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. écluse runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against enclume's 7 (VCCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between écluse and enclume
A purely visual mix-up. écluse (\e.klyz\) and enclume (\ɑ̃.klym\) 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 67398, 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\. enclume is at rank #37,790, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.klym\.
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 67398, this pair ranks #63,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of écluse vs enclume
Shared letters: celu. Private to "écluse": sé. Private to "enclume": mn.
"écluse" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "enclume" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- enclume ← ecnlume · encclume · encllume · enclmue · encluem · enclumme · enculme · enlcume
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écluse" for "enclume" ever safe?
Which is more common, "écluse" or "enclume"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "écluse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enclume" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écluse" and "enclume" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enclume vs encolure". 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 #63,603 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.