Which to use
“cahier” and “caries” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,952
- “cahier” frequency rank
- #38,190
- “caries” frequency rank
- 44142
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cahier | caries |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ensemble de feuilles de papier assemblées par agrafage ou couture et destinées à l’écriture. | Pluriel de carie. |
Where the eye mixes cahier and caries
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cahier and caries follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cahier and caries
A purely visual mix-up. cahier (\ka.je\) 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 44142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cahier is recorded at frequency rank #5,952, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.je\. 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 44142, this pair ranks #212,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cahier vs caries
Shared letters: aceir. Private to "cahier": h. Private to "caries": s.
"cahier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cahier" for "caries" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cahier" or "caries"?
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 "cahier" 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 #212,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cahier" 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 #212,740 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.