escalesvsescapeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,723
“escales” frequency rank
#24,961
“escape” frequency rank
51684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escales escape
Definition Pluriel de escale. Partie inférieure du fût d'une colonne, la plus proche de la base.

Where the eye mixes escales and escape

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

7 ch
escales
6 ch
escape

Look-alike desk: escales vs escape

A purely visual mix-up. escales (\ɛs.kal\) and escape (\ɛs.kap\) 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 51684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escales is recorded at frequency rank #26,723, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.kal\. escape is at rank #24,961, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.kap\.

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 51684, this pair ranks #153,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of escales vs escape

Shared letters: aces. Private to "escales": l. Private to "escape": p.

"escales" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "escape" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escalesecsales · esacles · escaels · escaless · escalles · escalse · esccales · esclaes
  • escapeecsape · esacpe · escaep · escappe · esccape · escpae · esscape · secape

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "escales" for "escape" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛs.kal\ versus \ɛs.kap\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "escales" vs "escape" - which ranks higher?
"escape" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,961 in our French list, against #26,723 for "escales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "escales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escape" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escales" and "escape" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écope vs escape". 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 #153,194 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