Which to use
“basile” and “bastide” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,933
- “basile” frequency rank
- #24,873
- “bastide” frequency rank
- 45806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | basile | bastide |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Inclinaison du fer d’un rabot, d’une varlope. | Élément de fortification. |
Where the eye mixes basile and bastide
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses basile with bastide
A purely visual mix-up. basile (\ba.sil\) and bastide (\bas.tid\) 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 45806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
basile is recorded at frequency rank #20,933, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.sil\. bastide is at rank #24,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bas.tid\.
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 45806, this pair ranks #199,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of basile vs bastide
Shared letters: abeis. Private to "basile": l. Private to "bastide": dt.
"basile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "bastide" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "basile" and "bastide" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "basile" vs "bastide" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "basile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bastide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "basile" and "bastide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "basale vs basile". 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 #199,890 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.