cachéevscaléeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,282
“cachée” frequency rank
#48,384
“calée” frequency rank
55666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cachée calée
Definition Féminin singulier de caché. Féminin singulier de calé.

Where the eye mixes cachée and calée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cachée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against calée's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cachée
5 ch
calée

Visual trap between cachée and calée

A purely visual mix-up. cachée (\ka.ʃe\) and calée (\ka.le\) 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 55666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cachée is recorded at frequency rank #7,282, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.ʃe\. calée is at rank #48,384, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.le\.

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 55666, this pair ranks #126,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cachée vs calée

Shared letters: aceé. Private to "cachée": h. Private to "calée": l.

"cachée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "calée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cachée" and "calée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ʃe\ versus \ka.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cachée" vs "calée" - which ranks higher?
"cachée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,282 in our French list, against #48,384 for "calée". 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 "cachée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "calée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cachée" and "calée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs calée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #126,009 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