Which to use
“caries” and “carne” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,190
- “caries” frequency rank
- #45,492
- “carne” frequency rank
- 83682
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caries | carne |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de carie. | Angle, coin saillant d’une pièce d'architecture ou de menuiserie. |
Where the eye mixes caries and carne
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caries runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against carne's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses caries with carne
A purely visual mix-up. caries (\ka.ʁi\) and carne (\kaʁn\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83682, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caries is recorded at frequency rank #38,190, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁi\. carne is at rank #45,492, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁn\.
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 83682, this pair ranks #14,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of caries vs carne
Shared letters: acer. Private to "caries": is. Private to "carne": n.
"caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "carne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "caries" and "carne" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "caries" vs "carne" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "caries" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #14,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caries" and "carne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carne vs carrez". 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 #14,375 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.