elevsélecWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,239
“ele” frequency rank
#45,965
“élec” frequency rank
86204
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ele élec
Definition Parole, discours, propos. Électricité.

Letter map: ele vs élec

Shared letters muted; letters that set ele and élec apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. ele 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
ele
4 ch
élec

Corpus notes: ele and élec

ele and élec are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ele is recorded at frequency rank #40,239, classified as anoun. 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 86204, this pair ranks #10,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ele vs élec

Shared letters: el. Private to "ele": -. Private to "élec": cé.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ele" and "élec" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "ele" or "élec"?
"ele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,239 in our French list, against #45,965 for "élec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ele" and "élec".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ele" 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 #10,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ele" and "élec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "élec vs ell". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #10,077 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