caléevscalerTell them apart

Quick tell: calée is a adjective, caler is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“calée” is an adjective and “caler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,384
“calée” frequency rank
#22,506
“caler” frequency rank
70890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calée caler
Definition Féminin singulier de calé. Baisser, en parlant des basses vergues, des mâts de hune ou de perroquet.

Same sound, different letters: calée vs caler

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. calée (CVCVV) and caler (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
calée
5 ch
caler

Same sound, different spelling - calée / caler

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: calée and caler carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ka.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

calée is recorded at frequency rank #48,384, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.le\. caler is at rank #22,506, tagged as averb, pronounced \ka.le\.

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 70890, this pair ranks #49,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of calée vs caler

Shared letters: acel. Private to "calée": é. Private to "caler": r.

"calée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "caler" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caler ← acler · caelr · calerr · caller · calre · ccaler · claer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "calée" and "caler" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "calée" is an adjective and "caler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "calée" vs "caler" - which ranks higher?
"caler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,506 in our French list, against #48,384 for "calée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "calée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calée" and "caler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs calée". 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 #49,587 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