elavsélecWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,314
“ela” frequency rank
#45,965
“élec” frequency rank
93279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ela élec
Definition Activité de loisir, amateur, loisir. Électricité.

Where the eye mixes ela and élec

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. ela runs 3 letters (VCV) against élec's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
ela
4 ch
élec

Visual trap between ela and élec

A purely visual mix-up. ela (\ˈɛla\) and élec (\e.lɛk\) 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 93279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ela is recorded at frequency rank #47,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɛla\. élec is at rank #45,965, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.lɛk\.

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 93279, this pair ranks #2,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ela vs élec

Shared letters: el. Private to "ela": a. Private to "élec": cé.

"ela" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "élec" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ela" for "élec" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈɛla\ versus \e.lɛk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ela" vs "élec" - which ranks higher?
"élec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,965 in our French list, against #47,314 for "ela". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ela" and "élec" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "élec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ela" and "élec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ela vs EPO". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,387 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