cabaretsvscabinetsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,007
“cabarets” frequency rank
#11,006
“cabinets” frequency rank
45013
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabarets cabinets
Definition Pluriel de cabaret. Pluriel de cabinet.

Where the eye mixes cabarets and cabinets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cabarets and cabinets follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
cabarets
8 ch
cabinets

Why the eye confuses cabarets with cabinets

A purely visual mix-up. cabarets (\ka.ba.ʁɛ\) and cabinets (\ka.bi.nɛ\) 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 45013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabarets is recorded at frequency rank #34,007, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ba.ʁɛ\. cabinets is at rank #11,006, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.bi.nɛ\.

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 45013, this pair ranks #206,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabarets vs cabinets

Shared letters: abcest. Private to "cabarets": r. Private to "cabinets": in.

"cabarets" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "cabinets" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabarets ← acbarets · caabrets · cabaerts · cabarest · cabaretss · cabaretts · cabarrets · cabartes
  • cabinets ← acbinets · cabbinets · cabients · cabinest · cabinetss · cabinetts · cabinnets · cabintes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabarets" for "cabinets" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ba.ʁɛ\ versus \ka.bi.nɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cabarets" vs "cabinets" - which ranks higher?
"cabinets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,006 in our French list, against #34,007 for "cabarets". 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 "cabarets" and "cabinets" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabarets" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cabinets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabarets" and "cabinets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabanes vs cabarets". 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 #206,071 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