Which to use
“cales” and “clé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,327
- “cales” frequency rank
- #1,987
- “clé” frequency rank
- 34314
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cales | clé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de cale. | Instrument de métal que l’on introduit dans une serrure pour ouvrir ou fermer un accès. Ancienne clé à panneton que l'on place et fait tourner dans la serrure d'une porte, d'un coffre, etc. |
Where the eye mixes cales and clé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cales vs clé
A purely visual mix-up. cales (\kal\) and clé (\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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34314, 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\. clé is at rank #1,987, 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 34314, this pair ranks #284,693 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cales vs clé
Shared letters: cl. Private to "cales": aes. Private to "clé": é.
"cales" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "clé" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cales ← acles · caels · caless · calles · calse · ccales · claes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cales" and "clé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cales" or "clé" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cales" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #284,693 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cales" and "clé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cales vs callas". 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 #284,693 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.