blésvsblotWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,899
“blés” frequency rank
#44,900
“blot” frequency rank
79799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blés blot
Definition Pluriel de blé. Instrument pour mesurer la marche d’un navire (élément du loch).

Where the eye mixes blés and blot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. blés and blot follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
blés
4 ch
blot

Look-alike desk: blés vs blot

A purely visual mix-up. blés (\ble\) and blot (\blo\) 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 79799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blés is recorded at frequency rank #34,899, classified as anoun, pronounced \ble\. blot is at rank #44,900, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blo\.

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 79799, this pair ranks #22,463 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blés vs blot

Shared letters: bl. Private to "blés": sé. Private to "blot": ot.

"blés" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "blot" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blot ← bblot · bllot · blott · blto · lbot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blés" for "blot" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ble\ versus \blo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "blés" or "blot"?
"blés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,899 in our French list, against #44,900 for "blot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,463 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blés" and "blot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "below vs blot". 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 #22,463 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