Which to use
“écluses” and “excuses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,438
- “écluses” frequency rank
- #3,914
- “excuses” frequency rank
- 34352
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écluses | excuses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de écluse. | Pluriel de excuse. |
Where the eye mixes écluses and excuses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. écluses and excuses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between écluses and excuses
A purely visual mix-up. écluses (\e.klyz\) and excuses (\ɛks.kyz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écluses is recorded at frequency rank #30,438, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.klyz\. excuses is at rank #3,914, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛks.kyz\.
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 34352, this pair ranks #284,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of écluses vs excuses
Shared letters: cesu. Private to "écluses": lé. Private to "excuses": x.
"écluses" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "excuses" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- excuses ← ecxuses · exccuses · excsues · excuess · excusess · excusses · exucses · exxcuses
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écluses" for "excuses" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "écluses" or "excuses" show up more?
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 "écluses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excuses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #284,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écluses" and "excuses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éclipses vs écluses". 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 #284,439 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.