bichesvsbitesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,747
“biches” frequency rank
#14,866
“bites” frequency rank
62613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature biches bites
Definition Pluriel de biche. Pluriel de bite.

Where the eye mixes biches and bites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. biches runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against bites's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
biches
5 ch
bites

Look-alike desk: biches vs bites

A purely visual mix-up. biches (\biʃ\) and bites (\bit\) 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 62613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

biches is recorded at frequency rank #47,747, classified as anoun, pronounced \biʃ\. bites is at rank #14,866, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bit\.

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 62613, this pair ranks #86,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of biches vs bites

Shared letters: beis. Private to "biches": ch. Private to "bites": t.

"biches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • biches ← bbiches · bcihes · bicches · bicehs · bichess · bichhes · bichse · bihces
  • bites ← bbites · biets · bitess · bitse · bittes · bties · ibtes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "biches" and "bites" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\biʃ\ versus \bit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "biches" or "bites"?
"bites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,866 in our French list, against #47,747 for "biches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "biches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #86,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "biches" and "bites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bibles vs biches". 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 #86,210 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