Which to use
“enclave” and “enclaves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,306
- “enclave” frequency rank
- #38,271
- “enclaves” frequency rank
- 59577
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enclave | enclaves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Terrain, territoire entièrement enfermé dans un autre. | Pluriel de enclave. |
Same sound, different letters: enclave vs enclaves
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - enclave / enclaves
This is the hard kind. enclave and enclaves are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.klav\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “enclave” sits inside “enclaves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
enclave is recorded at frequency rank #21,306, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.klav\. enclaves is at rank #38,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.klav\.
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 59577, this pair ranks #102,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of enclave vs enclaves
Shared letters: acelnv. Private to "enclave": -. Private to "enclaves": s.
"enclave" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV · "enclaves" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "enclave" for "enclaves" ever safe?
Which is more common, "enclave" or "enclaves"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "enclave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enclaves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #102,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enclave" and "enclaves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enclaves vs entraves". 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 #102,384 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.