Which to use
“cabale” and “carafe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,505
- “cabale” frequency rank
- #35,851
- “carafe” frequency rank
- 66356
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cabale | carafe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tradition parmi les juifs substituant un sens mystique et allégorique au sens propre de l’Ancien Testament. | Sorte de bouteille de verre ou de cristal, avec ou sans bouchon, plus large par le bas que par le haut, qui sert principalement à contenir l’eau et quelquefois le vin ou les liqueurs que l’on sert à table. |
Where the eye mixes cabale and carafe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cabale and carafe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cabale and carafe
A purely visual mix-up. cabale (\ka.bal\) and carafe (\ka.ʁaf\) 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 66356, 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\. carafe is at rank #35,851, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁaf\.
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 66356, this pair ranks #68,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cabale vs carafe
Shared letters: ace. Private to "cabale": bl. Private to "carafe": fr.
"cabale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "carafe" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cabale" for "carafe" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cabale" or "carafe"?
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 "cabale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carafe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #68,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cabale" and "carafe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carafe vs curage". 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 #68,203 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.