bitesvsboxesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,866
“bites” frequency rank
#41,683
“boxes” frequency rank
56549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bites boxes
Definition Pluriel de bite. Pluriel de boxe.

Where the eye mixes bites and boxes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bites
5 ch
boxes

Visual trap between bites and boxes

A purely visual mix-up. bites (\bit\) and boxes (\bɔks\) 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 56549, 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\. boxes is at rank #41,683, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔks\.

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 56549, this pair ranks #120,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bites vs boxes

Shared letters: bes. Private to "bites": it. Private to "boxes": ox.

"bites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "boxes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bitesbbites · biets · bitess · bitse · bittes · bties · ibtes
  • boxesbboxes · boexs · boxess · boxse · boxxes · bxoes · obxes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bites" for "boxes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bit\ versus \bɔks\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bites" or "boxes"?
"bites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,866 in our French list, against #41,683 for "boxes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "bites" and "boxes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bites" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boxes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #120,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bites" and "boxes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bordés vs boxes". 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 #120,425 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