caléevscotéeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,384
“calée” frequency rank
#22,815
“cotée” frequency rank
71199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calée cotée
Definition Féminin singulier de calé. Féminin singulier de coté.

Where the eye mixes calée and cotée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. calée and cotée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
calée
5 ch
cotée

Why the eye confuses calée with cotée

A purely visual mix-up. calée (\ka.le\) and cotée (\kɔ.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71199, 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\. cotée is at rank #22,815, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.te\.

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 71199, this pair ranks #48,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of calée vs cotée

Shared letters: ceé. Private to "calée": al. Private to "cotée": ot.

"calée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "cotée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "calée" and "cotée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.le\ versus \kɔ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "calée" or "cotée" show up more?
"cotée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,815 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "calée" and "cotée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "calée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cotée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calée" and "cotée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs calée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #48,448 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