cale

\kal\

/\kal\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“cale” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #13,129) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#13,129
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - La partie la plus basse dans l’intérieur d’un bâtiment ; compartiment où sont stockées différentes marchandises.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cale · cale · French

cale · rank #13,129 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #13,129
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cachet

Nearest frequency peer: cachet (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « cale »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « cale » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cale vs ce
50% similar
cale vs Cl
25% similar
cale vs cas
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cale
PropertyValue
Headwordcale
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kal\
Letters4
Frequency rank#13,129
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « cale »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).calese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « cachet » (#13,128), « carrée » (#13,130), « chantant » (#13,131). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cale » est au #13,129. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for cale is neighbouring look-alikes ("ce", "Cl", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \kal\. Frequency #13,129 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Gloss: "La partie la plus basse dans l’intérieur d’un bâtiment ; compartiment où sont stockées différentes marchandises.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for cale, with forms such as "acle", "cael", and "ccale". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ce", "Cl", "cas", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is cale, spelled C-A-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    La partie la plus basse dans l’intérieur d’un bâtiment ; compartiment où sont stockées différentes marchandises.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cale appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le bâtiment fut exploré de la cale à la dunette (ce qui, en langage terre à terre, se traduit par "de la cave au grenier").
  2. Si une cale contient ces matières en vrac ou sans emballage, le conducteur doit s'assurer quotidiennement aux puisards et aux tuyauteries des pompes qu'aucune eau n'a pénétré dans les fonds de cale.

This word in other languages

hold(English)cala(Español)Bilge(Deutsch)porão(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acle
  • cael
  • ccale
  • clae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cale - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

acle2cael2ccale1clae2
Edit distance from "cale"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cale"?
"cale" is spelled C-A-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kal\.
What does "cale" mean?
As a noun, "cale" means: La partie la plus basse dans l’intérieur d’un bâtiment ; compartiment où sont stockées différentes marchandises.
What words are commonly confused with "cale"?
"cale" is commonly confused with "ce", "Cl", "cas". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cale"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cale" is \kal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cale" come from?
"cale" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cale", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bouc#13,119body#13,118Bein#13,115Bach#13,110

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list