Which to use
“cadenas” and “canevas” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,142
- “cadenas” frequency rank
- #39,200
- “canevas” frequency rank
- 57342
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cadenas | canevas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Serrure mobile qui sert à fermer une porte, une caisse, etc., au moyen d’un anneau passé soit dans un autre anneau, soit dans deux pitons. | Grosse toile, et particulièrement grosse toile écrue et à jour sur laquelle on fait des ouvrages de tapisserie et qui sert à quelques autres usages. |
Where the eye mixes cadenas and canevas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cadenas and canevas follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses cadenas with canevas
A purely visual mix-up. cadenas (\kad.nɑ\) and canevas (\kan.va\) 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 57342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cadenas is recorded at frequency rank #18,142, classified as anoun, pronounced \kad.nɑ\. canevas is at rank #39,200, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kan.va\.
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 57342, this pair ranks #115,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cadenas vs canevas
Shared letters: acens. Private to "cadenas": d. Private to "canevas": v.
"cadenas" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "canevas" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cadenas" and "canevas" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "cadenas" vs "canevas" - which ranks higher?
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 "cadenas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "canevas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #115,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cadenas" and "canevas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cameras vs canevas". 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 #115,628 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.