Which to use
“encre” and “encres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,055
- “encre” frequency rank
- #34,521
- “encres” frequency rank
- 41576
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encre | encres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Liquide ordinairement noir dont on se sert pour écrire, pour imprimer. | Pluriel de encre. |
Same sound, different letters: encre vs encres
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. encre runs 5 letters (VCCCV) against encres's 6 (VCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - encre / encres
This is the hard kind. encre and encres are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃kʁ\) 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) - “encre” sits inside “encres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
encre is recorded at frequency rank #7,055, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃kʁ\. encres is at rank #34,521, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃kʁ\.
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 41576, this pair ranks #232,100 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of encre vs encres
Shared letters: cenr. Private to "encre": -. Private to "encres": s.
"encre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV · "encres" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "encre" and "encres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "encre" or "encres"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "encre" / "encres". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "encre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "encres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,100 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encre" and "encres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encres vs énerves". 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 #232,100 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.