Which to use
“carats” and “carmes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,582
- “carats” frequency rank
- #30,089
- “carmes” frequency rank
- 55671
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carats | carmes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de carat. | Pluriel de carme. |
Where the eye mixes carats and carmes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. carats (CVCVCC) and carmes (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses carats with carmes
A purely visual mix-up. carats (\ka.ʁa\) and carmes (\kaʁm\) 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 55671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carats is recorded at frequency rank #25,582, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁa\. carmes is at rank #30,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁm\.
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 55671, this pair ranks #125,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of carats vs carmes
Shared letters: acrs. Private to "carats": t. Private to "carmes": em.
"carats" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "carmes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "carats" and "carmes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "carats" vs "carmes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "carats" and "carmes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "carats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carmes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carats" and "carmes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carmes vs charmée". 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 #125,978 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.