Which to use
“explicative” and “explicatives” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,532
- “explicative” frequency rank
- #49,647
- “explicatives” frequency rank
- 84179
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | explicative | explicatives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de explicatif. | Féminin pluriel de explicatif. |
Same sound, different letters: explicative vs explicatives
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - explicative and explicatives
This is the hard kind. explicative and explicatives are pronounced identically (\ɛks.pli.ka.tiv\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “explicative” sits inside “explicatives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
explicative is recorded at frequency rank #34,532, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛks.pli.ka.tiv\. explicatives is at rank #49,647, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛks.pli.ka.tiv\.
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 84179, this pair ranks #13,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of explicative vs explicatives
Shared letters: aceilptvx. Private to "explicative": -. Private to "explicatives": s.
"explicative" · 11 letters · shape VCCCVCVCVCV · "explicatives" · 12 letters · shape VCCCVCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- explicative ← epxlicative · exlpicative · expilcative · explciative · expliactive · explicaitve · explicatiev · explicativve
- explicatives ← epxlicatives · exlpicatives · expilcatives · explciatives · expliactives · explicaitves · explicatievs · explicativess
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "explicative" and "explicatives" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "explicative" vs "explicatives" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"explicative" and "explicatives" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "explicative" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "explicatives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #13,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "explicative" and "explicatives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "explicatifs vs explicatives". 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 #13,441 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.