Which to use
“caries” and “cartes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,190
- “caries” frequency rank
- #1,766
- “cartes” frequency rank
- 39956
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caries | cartes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de carie. | Pluriel de carte. |
Where the eye mixes caries and cartes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: caries vs cartes
A purely visual mix-up. caries (\ka.ʁi\) and cartes (\kaʁt\) 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 a single letter - i in “caries” becomes t in “cartes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39956, 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\. cartes is at rank #1,766, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁt\.
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 39956, this pair ranks #244,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caries vs cartes
Shared letters: acers. Private to "caries": i. Private to "cartes": t.
"caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "cartes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "caries" and "cartes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "caries" or "cartes" show up more?
What to do next
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 "cartes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #244,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caries" and "cartes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caries 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 #244,110 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.