cagnesvscariesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,326
“cagnes” frequency rank
#38,190
“caries” frequency rank
70516
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagnes caries
Definition Pluriel de cagne. Pluriel de carie.

Where the eye mixes cagnes and caries

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cagnes (CVCCVC) and caries (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
cagnes
6 ch
caries

Look-alike desk: cagnes vs caries

A purely visual mix-up. cagnes (\kaɲ\) and caries (\ka.ʁi\) 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 70516, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cagnes is recorded at frequency rank #32,326, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaɲ\. caries is at rank #38,190, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁi\.

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 70516, this pair ranks #51,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cagnes vs caries

Shared letters: aces. Private to "cagnes": gn. Private to "caries": ir.

"cagnes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cagnes ← acgnes · cagens · caggnes · cagness · cagnnes · cagnse · canges · ccagnes
  • caries ← acries · caires · careis · cariess · carise · carries · ccaries · craies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cagnes" and "caries" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaɲ\ versus \ka.ʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cagnes" vs "caries" - which ranks higher?
"cagnes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,326 in our French list, against #38,190 for "caries". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cagnes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caries" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagnes" and "caries" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caries vs carrez". 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 #51,034 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