caissevschausseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,410
“caisse” frequency rank
#36,303
“chausse” frequency rank
38713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caisse chausse
Definition Contenant rigide, de forme cubique ou parallélépipédique, constitué par l'assemblage de panneaux pleins ou à claire-voie, dans lequel on peut mettre des objets, pour les stocker ou les transporter. Sorte de bas constitué d’un tube de tissu ou de tricot qui monte jusqu’en haut des cuisses (répandu au Moyen Âge). → voir chausses

Where the eye mixes caisse and chausse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. caisse runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against chausse's 7 (CCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
caisse
7 ch
chausse

Visual trap between caisse and chausse

A purely visual mix-up. caisse (\kɛs\) and chausse (\ʃos\) 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 38713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caisse is recorded at frequency rank #2,410, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɛs\. chausse is at rank #36,303, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃos\.

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 38713, this pair ranks #253,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caisse vs chausse

Shared letters: aces. Private to "caisse": i. Private to "chausse": hu.

"caisse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "chausse" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caisse ← acisse · caise · caises · casise · ccaisse · ciasse
  • chausse ← cahusse · cchausse · chasuse · chause · chauses · chhausse · chuasse · hcausse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caisse" for "chausse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɛs\ versus \ʃos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "caisse" or "chausse" show up more?
"caisse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,410 in our French list, against #36,303 for "chausse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caisse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chausse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caisse" and "chausse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causses vs chausse". 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 #253,340 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