écranvsécrouWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,616
“écran” frequency rank
#34,814
“écrou” frequency rank
36430
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écran écrou
Definition Tableau sur lequel on fait projeter l’image d’un objet, en particulier la surface blanche sur laquelle on projette les films de cinéma. Pièce d’assemblage mécanique d’acier, ou de toute autre matière solide, percée d’un taraudage, et dans lequel entre une vis ou une tige filetée en rotation.

Where the eye mixes écran and écrou

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
écran
5 ch
écrou

Why the eye confuses écran with écrou

A purely visual mix-up. écran (\e.kʁɑ̃\) and écrou (\e.kʁu\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36430, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écran is recorded at frequency rank #1,616, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁɑ̃\. écrou is at rank #34,814, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁu\.

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 36430, this pair ranks #269,685 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écran vs écrou

Shared letters: cré. Private to "écran": an. Private to "écrou": ou.

"écran" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "écrou" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écran" and "écrou" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁɑ̃\ versus \e.kʁu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "écran" vs "écrou" - which ranks higher?
"écran" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,616 in our French list, against #34,814 for "écrou". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écrou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #269,685 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écran" and "écrou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écria vs écrou". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #269,685 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