Which to use
“caillou” and “cailloux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,314
- “caillou” frequency rank
- #11,922
- “cailloux” frequency rank
- 28236
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caillou | cailloux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pierre de petite (ou moyenne) dimension. | Pluriel de caillou. |
Same sound, different letters: caillou vs cailloux
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. caillou runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against cailloux's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - caillou and cailloux
This is the hard kind. caillou and cailloux are pronounced identically (\ka.ju\) 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) - “caillou” sits inside “cailloux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caillou is recorded at frequency rank #16,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ju\. 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 28236, this pair ranks #324,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caillou vs cailloux
Shared letters: acilou. Private to "caillou": -. Private to "cailloux": x.
"caillou" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "cailloux" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "caillou" and "cailloux" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "caillou" or "cailloux"?
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 "caillou" 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 #324,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caillou" and "cailloux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caillots vs caillou". 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 #324,070 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.