entravevsentravéeConfusable pair

Quick tell: entrave is a noun, entravée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“entrave” is a noun and “entravée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,140
“entrave” frequency rank
#48,496
“entravée” frequency rank
63636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entrave entravée
Definition Lien qu’on met aux jambes d’un animal, ou traverse suspendue par une corde à son cou, pour en gêner la marche. Féminin singulier de entravé.

Where the eye mixes entrave and entravée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. entrave runs 7 letters (VCCCVCV) against entravée's 8 (VCCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
entrave
8 ch
entravée

Look-alike desk: entrave vs entravée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: entrave is \ɑ̃.tʁav\ while entravée is \ɑ̃.tʁa.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entrave is recorded at frequency rank #15,140, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁav\. entravée is at rank #48,496, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁa.ve\.

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 63636, this pair ranks #80,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of entrave vs entravée

Shared letters: aenrtv. Private to "entrave": -. Private to "entravée": é.

"entrave" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "entravée" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entraveenntrave · enrtave · entarve · entraev · entravve · entrrave · entrvae · enttrave

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "entrave" for "entravée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "entrave" is a noun and "entravée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "entrave" or "entravée"?
"entrave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,140 in our French list, against #48,496 for "entravée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entrave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entravée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #80,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entrave" and "entravée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entravée vs entravent". 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 #80,974 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