caïdvscaïdsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,476
“caïd” frequency rank
#45,498
“caïds” frequency rank
68974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caïd caïds
Definition Gouverneur de province ou de ville chez les Arabes. Pluriel de caïd.

Same sound, different letters: caïd vs caïds

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

4 ch
caïd
5 ch
caïds

Ear matches; page differs - caïd and caïds

This is the hard kind. caïd and caïds are pronounced identically (\ka.id\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “caïd” sits inside “caïds”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caïd is recorded at frequency rank #23,476, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.id\. caïds is at rank #45,498, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.id\.

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 68974, this pair ranks #56,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caïd vs caïds

Shared letters: acdï. Private to "caïd": -. Private to "caïds": s.

"caïd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "caïds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caïd" for "caïds" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ka.id\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "caïd" or "caïds"?
"caïd" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,476 in our French list, against #45,498 for "caïds". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caïd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caïds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caïd" and "caïds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caïds vs cakes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,982 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