Which to use
“boîte” and “boites” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,651
- “boîte” frequency rank
- #12,526
- “boites” frequency rank
- 14177
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | boîte | boites |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet rigide et creux ayant la capacité de se fermer et qui a vocation à accueillir quelque chose. | Pluriel de boite. |
Same sound, different letters: boîte vs boites
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. boîte runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against boites's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: boîte vs boites
This is the hard kind. boîte and boites are pronounced identically (\bwat\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14177, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
boîte is recorded at frequency rank #1,651, classified as anoun, pronounced \bwat\. boites is at rank #12,526, 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 14177, this pair ranks #397,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of boîte vs boites
Shared letters: beot. Private to "boîte": î. Private to "boites": is.
"boîte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "boites" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- boites ← bboites · biotes · boiets · boitess · boitse · boittes · boties · obites
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "boîte" for "boites" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "boîte" or "boites" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "boîte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "boîte" and "boites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boites vs bordés". 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 #397,823 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.