entravevsentréeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,140
“entrave” frequency rank
#752
“entrée” frequency rank
15892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entrave entrée
Definition Lien qu’on met aux jambes d’un animal, ou traverse suspendue par une corde à son cou, pour en gêner la marche. Endroit par où l’on entre dans un lieu.

Where the eye mixes entrave and entrée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
entrave
6 ch
entrée

Visual trap between entrave and entrée

A purely visual mix-up. entrave (\ɑ̃.tʁav\) and entrée (\ɑ̃.tʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15892, 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\. entrée is at rank #752, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁe\.

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 15892, this pair ranks #390,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of entrave vs entrée

Shared letters: enrt. Private to "entrave": av. Private to "entrée": é.

"entrave" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "entrée" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "entrave" and "entrée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.tʁav\ versus \ɑ̃.tʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "entrave" vs "entrée" - which ranks higher?
"entrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #752 in our French list, against #15,140 for "entrave". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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 "entrée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #390,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entrave" and "entrée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entrave vs entravée". 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 #390,376 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