blacksvsblankConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#16,818
“blacks” frequency rank
#44,898
“blank” frequency rank
61716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blacks blank
Definition Pluriel de black. Partie principale d’une canne à lancer, faite d’un ou plusieurs brins en bambou, fibre de verre ou de carbone...

Where the eye mixes blacks and blank

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
blacks
5 ch
blank

Visual trap between blacks and blank

A purely visual mix-up. blacks (\blak\) and blank (\blɑ̃k\) 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 61716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blacks is recorded at frequency rank #16,818, classified as anoun, pronounced \blak\. blank is at rank #44,898, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blɑ̃k\.

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 61716, this pair ranks #90,825 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blacks vs blank

Shared letters: abkl. Private to "blacks": cs. Private to "blank": n.

"blacks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "blank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blacksbalcks · bblacks · blaccks · blackks · blackss · blacsk · blakcs · blcaks
  • blankbalnk · bblank · blakn · blankk · blannk · bllank · blnak · lbank

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blacks" for "blank" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\blak\ versus \blɑ̃k\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "blacks" or "blank" show up more?
"blacks" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,818 in our French list, against #44,898 for "blank". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blacks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blank" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,825 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blacks" and "blank" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bane vs blank". 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 #90,825 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