Which to use
“cales” and “cimes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,327
- “cales” frequency rank
- #37,727
- “cimes” frequency rank
- 70054
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cales | cimes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de cale. | Pluriel de cime. |
Where the eye mixes cales and cimes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cales and cimes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: cales vs cimes
A purely visual mix-up. cales (\kal\) and cimes (\sim\) 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 70054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cales is recorded at frequency rank #32,327, classified as anoun, pronounced \kal\. cimes is at rank #37,727, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sim\.
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 70054, this pair ranks #52,828 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cales vs cimes
Shared letters: ces. Private to "cales": al. Private to "cimes": im.
"cales" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cimes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cales" for "cimes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cales" or "cimes"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cales" and "cimes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cimes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #52,828 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cales" and "cimes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs cimes". 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 #52,828 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.