cabanesvscobayesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#19,227
“cabanes” frequency rank
#28,487
“cobayes” frequency rank
47714
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabanes cobayes
Definition Pluriel de cabane. Pluriel de cobaye.

Where the eye mixes cabanes and cobayes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cabanes (CVCVCVC) and cobayes (CVCVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
cabanes
7 ch
cobayes

Visual trap between cabanes and cobayes

A purely visual mix-up. cabanes (\ka.ban\) and cobayes (\kɔ.baj\) 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 47714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabanes is recorded at frequency rank #19,227, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ban\. cobayes is at rank #28,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.baj\.

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 47714, this pair ranks #184,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabanes vs cobayes

Shared letters: abces. Private to "cabanes": n. Private to "cobayes": oy.

"cabanes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "cobayes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabanesacbanes · caabnes · cabaens · cabaness · cabannes · cabanse · cabbanes · cabnaes
  • cobayescboayes · ccobayes · coabyes · cobaeys · cobayess · cobayse · cobayyes · cobbayes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabanes" and "cobayes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ban\ versus \kɔ.baj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cabanes" vs "cobayes" - which ranks higher?
"cabanes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,227 in our French list, against #28,487 for "cobayes". 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 "cabanes" and "cobayes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabanes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cobayes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabanes" and "cobayes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabanes vs cutanés". 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 #184,750 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