Which to use
“bites” and “boîte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,866
- “bites” frequency rank
- #1,651
- “boîte” frequency rank
- 16517
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bites | boîte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de bite. | Objet rigide et creux ayant la capacité de se fermer et qui a vocation à accueillir quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes bites and boîte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bites with boîte
A purely visual mix-up. bites (\bit\) and boîte (\bwat\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bites is recorded at frequency rank #14,866, classified as anoun, pronounced \bit\. boîte is at rank #1,651, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bwat\.
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 16517, this pair ranks #387,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bites vs boîte
Shared letters: bet. Private to "bites": is. Private to "boîte": oî.
"bites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "boîte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bites ← bbites · biets · bitess · bitse · bittes · bties · ibtes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bites" and "boîte" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "bites" or "boîte" show up more?
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 "bites" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boîte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bites" and "boîte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bites vs Bizet". 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 #387,478 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.