Which to use
“ballast” and “ballet” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,797
- “ballast” frequency rank
- #9,277
- “ballet” frequency rank
- 53074
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ballast | ballet |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lest permettant de gérer la stabilité, l’assiette ou la gîte d’un navire. | Danse classique figurée, exécutée par plusieurs personnes sur un théâtre. |
Where the eye mixes ballast and ballet
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ballast with ballet
A purely visual mix-up. ballast (\ba.last\) and ballet (\ba.lɛ\) 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 53074, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ballast is recorded at frequency rank #43,797, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.last\. ballet is at rank #9,277, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.lɛ\.
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 53074, this pair ranks #143,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ballast vs ballet
Shared letters: ablt. Private to "ballast": s. Private to "ballet": e.
"ballast" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "ballet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ballast" and "ballet" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "ballast" or "ballet"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ballast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ballet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #143,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ballast" and "ballet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ballast vs blast". 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 #143,269 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.