cagesvscépagesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,563
“cages” frequency rank
#23,166
“cépages” frequency rank
39729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cages cépages
Definition Pluriel de cage. Pluriel de cépage.

Where the eye mixes cages and cépages

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cages runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against cépages's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cages
7 ch
cépages

Visual trap between cages and cépages

A purely visual mix-up. cages (\kaʒ\) and cépages (\se.paʒ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cages is recorded at frequency rank #16,563, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaʒ\. cépages is at rank #23,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.paʒ\.

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 39729, this pair ranks #245,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cages vs cépages

Shared letters: acegs. Private to "cages": -. Private to "cépages": pé.

"cages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cépages" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cages ← acges · caegs · cagess · cagges · cagse · ccages · cgaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cages" and "cépages" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kaʒ\ versus \se.paʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cages" or "cépages"?
"cages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,563 in our French list, against #23,166 for "cépages". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cages" and "cépages" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cépages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #245,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cages" and "cépages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cages vs CPGE". 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 #245,822 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