Which to use
“cakes” and “clés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,958
- “cakes” frequency rank
- #2,666
- “clés” frequency rank
- 51624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cakes | clés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de cake. | Pluriel de clé. |
Where the eye mixes cakes and clés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cakes and clés
A purely visual mix-up. cakes (\kɛk\) and clés (\kle\) 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 51624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cakes is recorded at frequency rank #48,958, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɛk\. clés is at rank #2,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kle\.
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 51624, this pair ranks #153,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cakes vs clés
Shared letters: cs. Private to "cakes": aek. Private to "clés": lé.
"cakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "clés" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cakes ← ackes · caeks · cakess · cakkes · cakse · ccakes · ckaes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cakes" for "clés" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cakes" vs "clés" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cakes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cakes" and "clés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs casus". 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 #153,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.