entravevsentravesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,140
“entrave” frequency rank
#27,426
“entraves” frequency rank
42566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Same sound, different letters: entrave vs entraves

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. entrave runs 7 letters (VCCCVCV) against entraves's 8 (VCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
entrave
8 ch
entraves

Homophone desk: entrave vs entraves

This is the hard kind. entrave and entraves are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.tʁav\) 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) - “entrave” sits inside “entraves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42566, 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\. entraves is at rank #27,426, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁav\.

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 42566, this pair ranks #224,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entrave vs entraves

Shared letters: aenrtv. Private to "entrave": -. Private to "entraves": s.

"entrave" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "entraves" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entraveenntrave · enrtave · entarve · entraev · entravve · entrrave · entrvae · enttrave
  • entravesenntraves · enrtaves · entarves · entraevs · entravess · entravse · entravves · entrraves

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entrave" and "entraves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɑ̃.tʁav\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "entrave" or "entraves" show up more?
"entrave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,140 in our French list, against #27,426 for "entraves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "entrave" / "entraves". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entrave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entraves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entrave" and "entraves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entravée 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 #224,634 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