caillesvscaissesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,169
“cailles” frequency rank
#5,322
“caisses” frequency rank
46491
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cailles caisses
Definition Pluriel de caille. Pluriel de caisse.

Where the eye mixes cailles and caisses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cailles and caisses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
cailles
7 ch
caisses

Visual trap between cailles and caisses

A purely visual mix-up. cailles (\kɑj\) and caisses (\kɛs\) 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 46491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cailles is recorded at frequency rank #41,169, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑj\. caisses is at rank #5,322, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɛs\.

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 46491, this pair ranks #194,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cailles vs caisses

Shared letters: aceis. Private to "cailles": l. Private to "caisses": -.

"cailles" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "caisses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cailles ← acilles · cailels · cailes · cailless · caillse · caliles · ccailles · cialles
  • caisses ← acisses · caisess · caissess · caissse · casises · ccaisses · ciasses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cailles" and "caisses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɑj\ versus \kɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cailles" or "caisses"?
"caisses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,322 in our French list, against #41,169 for "cailles". 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 "cailles" and "caisses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cailles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caisses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #194,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cailles" and "caisses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cailles vs callas". 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 #194,509 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