Which to use
“carafe” and “carole” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,851
- “carafe” frequency rank
- #13,338
- “carole” frequency rank
- 49189
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carafe | carole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de bouteille de verre ou de cristal, avec ou sans bouchon, plus large par le bas que par le haut, qui sert principalement à contenir l’eau et quelquefois le vin ou les liqueurs que l’on sert à table. | Forme de danse festive et populaire, très répandue au Moyen Âge, se présentant sous forme de chaîne ouverte ou fermée. |
Where the eye mixes carafe and carole
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. carafe and carole follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between carafe and carole
A purely visual mix-up. carafe (\ka.ʁaf\) and carole (\ka.ʁɔl\) 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 49189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carafe is recorded at frequency rank #35,851, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁaf\. carole is at rank #13,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁɔl\.
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 49189, this pair ranks #172,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of carafe vs carole
Shared letters: acer. Private to "carafe": f. Private to "carole": lo.
"carafe" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "carole" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "carafe" for "carole" ever safe?
Which is more common, "carafe" or "carole"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "carafe" and "carole" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "carafe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carafe" and "carole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carafe vs curage". 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 #172,713 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.