caillotvscaillouxWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,387
“caillot” frequency rank
#11,922
“cailloux” frequency rank
43309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caillot cailloux
Definition Petite masse de liquide coagulé. Pluriel de caillou.

Where the eye mixes caillot and cailloux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. caillot runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against cailloux's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
caillot
8 ch
cailloux

Why the eye confuses caillot with cailloux

A purely visual mix-up. caillot (\ka.jo\) and cailloux (\ka.ju\) 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 43309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caillot is recorded at frequency rank #31,387, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.jo\. cailloux is at rank #11,922, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ju\.

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 43309, this pair ranks #219,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caillot vs cailloux

Shared letters: acilo. Private to "caillot": t. Private to "cailloux": ux.

"caillot" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "cailloux" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caillot ← acillot · caillott · caillto · cailolt · cailot · calilot · ccaillot · ciallot
  • cailloux ← acilloux · caillouxx · cailloxu · cailluox · cailolux · cailoux · caliloux · ccailloux

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caillot" and "cailloux" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.jo\ versus \ka.ju\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "caillot" vs "cailloux" - which ranks higher?
"cailloux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,922 in our French list, against #31,387 for "caillot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "caillot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cailloux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #219,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caillot" and "cailloux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caillot vs caillots". 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 #219,064 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