cabalevscabaretTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,505
“cabale” frequency rank
#13,126
“cabaret” frequency rank
43631
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabale cabaret
Definition Tradition parmi les juifs substituant un sens mystique et allégorique au sens propre de l’Ancien Testament. Taverne où l’on vend en détail du vin et des boissons spiritueuses et où l’on vend aussi à manger.

Where the eye mixes cabale and cabaret

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cabale runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cabaret's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cabale
7 ch
cabaret

Visual trap between cabale and cabaret

A purely visual mix-up. cabale (\ka.bal\) and cabaret (\ka.ba.ʁɛ\) 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 43631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabale is recorded at frequency rank #30,505, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.bal\. cabaret is at rank #13,126, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ba.ʁɛ\.

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 43631, this pair ranks #216,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabale vs cabaret

Shared letters: abce. Private to "cabale": l. Private to "cabaret": rt.

"cabale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cabaret" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabale ← acbale · caable · cabael · caballe · cabbale · cablae · cbaale · ccabale
  • cabaret ← acbaret · caabret · cabaert · cabarett · cabarret · cabarte · cabbaret · cabraet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabale" and "cabaret" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.bal\ versus \ka.ba.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cabale" vs "cabaret" - which ranks higher?
"cabaret" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,126 in our French list, against #30,505 for "cabale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cabaret" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabale" and "cabaret" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabale vs Carle". 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 #216,588 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