caillesvscellesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,169
“cailles” frequency rank
#704
“celles” frequency rank
41873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cailles celles
Definition Pluriel de caille. Pluriel de celle.

Where the eye mixes cailles and celles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
cailles
6 ch
celles

Visual trap between cailles and celles

A purely visual mix-up. cailles (\kɑj\) and celles (\sɛl\) 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 41873, 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\. celles is at rank #704, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\.

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 41873, this pair ranks #229,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cailles vs celles

Shared letters: cels. Private to "cailles": ai. Private to "celles": -.

"cailles" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "celles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caillesacilles · cailels · cailes · cailless · caillse · caliles · ccailles · cialles
  • cellesccelles · celels · celes · celless · cellse · cleles · eclles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cailles" and "celles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɑj\ versus \sɛl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cailles" vs "celles" - which ranks higher?
"celles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #704 in our French list, against #41,169 for "cailles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cailles" and "celles" 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 "celles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cailles" and "celles" 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 #229,890 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