caissesvscausseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,322
“caisses” frequency rank
#41,174
“causse” frequency rank
46496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caisses causse
Definition Pluriel de caisse. Nom donné dans le Massif Central à de hauts plateaux calcaires nus et arides.

Where the eye mixes caisses and causse

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

7 ch
caisses
6 ch
causse

Visual trap between caisses and causse

A purely visual mix-up. caisses (\kɛs\) and causse (\kos\) 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 46496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caisses is recorded at frequency rank #5,322, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɛs\. causse is at rank #41,174, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kos\.

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 46496, this pair ranks #194,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caisses vs causse

Shared letters: aces. Private to "caisses": i. Private to "causse": u.

"caisses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "causse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caisses ← acisses · caisess · caissess · caissse · casises · ccaisses · ciasses
  • causse ← acusse · casuse · ccausse · cuasse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caisses" for "causse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɛs\ versus \kos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "caisses" vs "causse" - which ranks higher?
"caisses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,322 in our French list, against #41,174 for "causse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caisses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #194,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caisses" and "causse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causse vs causses". 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 #194,448 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