balisesvsbâtissesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#20,370
“balises” frequency rank
#39,683
“bâtisses” frequency rank
60053
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balises bâtisses
Definition Pluriel de balise. Pluriel de bâtisse.

Where the eye mixes balises and bâtisses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. balises runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against bâtisses's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
balises
8 ch
bâtisses

Visual trap between balises and bâtisses

A purely visual mix-up. balises (\ba.liz\) 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 60053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balises is recorded at frequency rank #20,370, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.liz\. 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 60053, this pair ranks #99,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of balises vs bâtisses

Shared letters: beis. Private to "balises": al. Private to "bâtisses": .

"balises" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "bâtisses" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • balisesablises · bailses · baliess · balisess · balisses · ballises · balsies · bbalises

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "balises" and "bâtisses" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ba.liz\ versus \bɑ.tis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "balises" vs "bâtisses" - which ranks higher?
"balises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,370 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "balises" and "bâtisses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "balises" 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 #99,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balises" 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 #99,704 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