Which to use
“escape” and “esclave” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,961
- “escape” frequency rank
- #6,391
- “esclave” frequency rank
- 31352
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | escape | esclave |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie inférieure du fût d'une colonne, la plus proche de la base. | Celui ou celle qui par sa naissance ou par sa capture n’est pas de condition libre ou que la violence a mis sous la puissance absolue d’un maître. |
Where the eye mixes escape and esclave
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses escape with esclave
A purely visual mix-up. escape (\ɛs.kap\) and esclave (\ɛs.klav\) 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 31352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
escape is recorded at frequency rank #24,961, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.kap\. esclave is at rank #6,391, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.klav\.
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 31352, this pair ranks #304,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of escape vs esclave
Shared letters: aces. Private to "escape": p. Private to "esclave": lv.
"escape" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "esclave" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "escape" for "esclave" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "escape" or "esclave" show up more?
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 "escape" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "esclave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "escape" and "esclave" 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 #304,328 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.