cachettevsclochetteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,985
“cachette” frequency rank
#31,890
“clochette” frequency rank
45875
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cachette clochette
Definition Petite cache. Cloche de petite taille.

Where the eye mixes cachette and clochette

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. cachette runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against clochette's 9 (CCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
cachette
9 ch
clochette

Why the eye confuses cachette with clochette

A purely visual mix-up. cachette (\ka.ʃɛt\) and clochette (\klɔ.ʃɛt\) 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 45875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cachette is recorded at frequency rank #13,985, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʃɛt\. clochette is at rank #31,890, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klɔ.ʃɛt\.

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 45875, this pair ranks #199,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cachette vs clochette

Shared letters: ceht. Private to "cachette": a. Private to "clochette": lo.

"cachette" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "clochette" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cachetteacchette · cacchette · cacehtte · cachete · cachetet · cachhette · cachtete · cahcette
  • clochettecclochette · clcohette · cllochette · clocchette · clocehtte · clochete · clochetet · clochhette

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cachette" for "clochette" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ʃɛt\ versus \klɔ.ʃɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cachette" vs "clochette" - which ranks higher?
"cachette" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,985 in our French list, against #31,890 for "clochette". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cachette" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clochette" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cachette" and "clochette" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clochette vs clochettes". 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 #199,361 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