cadevscanoëWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,160
“cade” frequency rank
#20,381
“canoë” frequency rank
60541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cade canoë
Definition Oxycèdre. Sorte de pirogue originaire des peuples d’Amérique du nord dans laquelle un ou plusieurs utilisateurs propulsent le bateau à l’aide d’une pagaie à une pale.

Where the eye mixes cade and canoë

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cade
5 ch
canoë

Visual trap between cade and canoë

A purely visual mix-up. cade (\kad\) and canoë (\ka.nɔ.e\) 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 60541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cade is recorded at frequency rank #40,160, classified as anoun, pronounced \kad\. canoë is at rank #20,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.nɔ.e\.

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 60541, this pair ranks #97,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cade vs canoë

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cade": de. Private to "canoë": noë.

"cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "canoë" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadeacde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cade" for "canoë" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kad\ versus \ka.nɔ.e\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cade" or "canoë" show up more?
"canoë" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,381 in our French list, against #40,160 for "cade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "canoë" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cade" and "canoë" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cade vs conde". 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 #97,088 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