Which to use
“balise” and “bals” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,214
- “balise” frequency rank
- #25,215
- “bals” frequency rank
- 44429
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balise | bals |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tout moyen de marquage d’un point de la surface terrestre. | Pluriel de bal. |
Where the eye mixes balise and bals
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. balise runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against bals's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses balise with bals
A purely visual mix-up. balise (\ba.liz\) and bals (\bal\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44429, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balise is recorded at frequency rank #19,214, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.liz\. bals is at rank #25,215, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bal\.
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 44429, this pair ranks #210,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balise vs bals
Shared letters: abls. Private to "balise": ei. Private to "bals": -.
"balise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "bals" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "balise" and "bals" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "balise" or "bals"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "balise" and "bals" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "balise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bals" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balise" and "bals" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bals vs bold". 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 #210,547 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.