capacitévscapucineConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,355
“capacité” frequency rank
#38,691
“capucine” frequency rank
40046
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capacité capucine
Definition Pouvoir de réaliser ou de produire quelque chose, en parlant de personnes ou de choses ; aptitude ; faculté ; force ; habileté. Religieuse de l’ordre des Clarisses capucines.

Where the eye mixes capacité and capucine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
capacité
8 ch
capucine

Look-alike desk: capacité vs capucine

A purely visual mix-up. capacité (\ka.pa.si.te\) and capucine (\ka.py.sin\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40046, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capacité is recorded at frequency rank #1,355, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.pa.si.te\. capucine is at rank #38,691, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.py.sin\.

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 40046, this pair ranks #243,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of capacité vs capucine

Shared letters: acip. Private to "capacité": . Private to "capucine": enu.

"capacité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "capucine" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capucineacpucine · capcuine · cappucine · capuccine · capucien · capucinne · capucnie · capuicne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capacité" for "capucine" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.pa.si.te\ versus \ka.py.sin\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "capacité" or "capucine"?
"capacité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,355 in our French list, against #38,691 for "capucine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "capacité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capucine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #243,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capacité" and "capucine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capucin vs capucine". 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 #243,449 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