blankvsblastWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,898
“blank” frequency rank
#44,899
“blast” frequency rank
89797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blank blast
Definition Partie principale d’une canne à lancer, faite d’un ou plusieurs brins en bambou, fibre de verre ou de carbone... Synonyme de « effet de souffle ».

Where the eye mixes blank and blast

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

5 ch
blank
5 ch
blast

Look-alike desk: blank vs blast

A purely visual mix-up. blank (\blɑ̃k\) and blast (\blast\) 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 89797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blank is recorded at frequency rank #44,898, classified as anoun, pronounced \blɑ̃k\. blast is at rank #44,899, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blast\.

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 89797, this pair ranks #5,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blank vs blast

Shared letters: abl. Private to "blank": kn. Private to "blast": st.

"blank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "blast" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blankbalnk · bblank · blakn · blankk · blannk · bllank · blnak · lbank
  • blastbalst · bblast · blasst · blastt · blats · bllast · blsat · lbast

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blank" for "blast" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\blɑ̃k\ versus \blast\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "blank" vs "blast" - which ranks higher?
"blank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,898 in our French list, against #44,899 for "blast". 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 "blank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blast" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blank" and "blast" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blast vs blaster". 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 #5,430 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