Which to use
“caille” and “cible” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,126
- “caille” frequency rank
- #2,511
- “cible” frequency rank
- 25637
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caille | cible |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vernaculaire normalisé donné à trois genres de petits gallinacés migrateurs de l’Ancien Monde comprenant un total de neuf espèces à plumage grivelé, exhibant souvent un patron très voyant de traits faciaux foncés et pâles en alternance, souvent chassées comme gibier, et dont la chair est réputée pour son fumet délicat. | Sorte de planche servant de but pour le tir à l’arc ou avec des armes à feu. |
Where the eye mixes caille and cible
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses caille with cible
A purely visual mix-up. caille (\kɑj\) and cible (\sibl\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caille is recorded at frequency rank #23,126, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑj\. cible is at rank #2,511, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sibl\.
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 25637, this pair ranks #339,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of caille vs cible
Shared letters: ceil. Private to "caille": a. Private to "cible": b.
"caille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "cible" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "caille" and "cible" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "caille" or "cible" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "caille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #339,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caille" and "cible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caille vs cédille". 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 #339,708 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.