Which to use
“balises” and “bolides” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,370
- “balises” frequency rank
- #37,692
- “bolides” frequency rank
- 58062
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balises | bolides |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de balise. | Pluriel de bolide. |
Where the eye mixes balises and bolides
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses balises with bolides
A purely visual mix-up. balises (\ba.liz\) and bolides (\bɔ.lid\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58062, 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\. bolides is at rank #37,692, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔ.lid\.
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 58062, this pair ranks #111,281 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of balises vs bolides
Shared letters: beils. Private to "balises": a. Private to "bolides": do.
"balises" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "bolides" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balises" for "bolides" ever safe?
Frequency check: "balises" vs "bolides" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "balises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bolides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #111,281 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balises" and "bolides" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bolides vs bourdes". 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 #111,281 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.