Which to use
“caries” and “cavités” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,190
- “caries” frequency rank
- #17,650
- “cavités” frequency rank
- 55840
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caries | cavités |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de carie. | Pluriel de cavité. |
Where the eye mixes caries and cavités
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caries runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against cavités's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: caries vs cavités
A purely visual mix-up. caries (\ka.ʁi\) and cavités (\ka.vi.te\) 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 55840, 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\. cavités is at rank #17,650, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.vi.te\.
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 55840, this pair ranks #124,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caries vs cavités
Shared letters: acis. Private to "caries": er. Private to "cavités": tvé.
"caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "cavités" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- caries ← acries · caires · careis · cariess · carise · carries · ccaries · craies
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "caries" and "cavités" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "caries" vs "cavités" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "caries" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cavités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #124,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caries" and "cavités" 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 #124,889 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.