baissesvsbâtissesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,096
“baisses” frequency rank
#39,683
“bâtisses” frequency rank
54779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baisses bâtisses
Definition Pluriel de baisse. Pluriel de bâtisse.

Where the eye mixes baisses and bâtisses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. baisses runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against bâtisses's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
baisses
8 ch
bâtisses

Why the eye confuses baisses with bâtisses

A purely visual mix-up. baisses (\bɛs\) and bâtisses (\bɑ.tis\) 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 54779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baisses is recorded at frequency rank #15,096, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɛs\. bâtisses is at rank #39,683, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɑ.tis\.

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 54779, this pair ranks #131,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of baisses vs bâtisses

Shared letters: beis. Private to "baisses": a. Private to "bâtisses": .

"baisses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "bâtisses" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baissesabisses · baisess · baissess · baissse · basises · bbaisses · biasses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "baisses" for "bâtisses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bɛs\ versus \bɑ.tis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "baisses" vs "bâtisses" - which ranks higher?
"baisses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,096 in our French list, against #39,683 for "bâtisses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "baisses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bâtisses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baisses" and "bâtisses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bâtisses vs bâtisseur". 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 #131,737 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