cassvsCDSWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cass” and “CDS” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,896
“cass” frequency rank
#28,477
“CDS” frequency rank
46373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cass CDS
Definition Cassis. Séquence codante, région d'une séquence d'ADN codant une séquence d'acides aminés de protéine.

Where the eye mixes cass and CDS

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cass
3 ch
CDS

Visual trap between cass and CDS

A purely visual mix-up. cass (\kas\) and CDS (\se.de.ɛs\) 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 46373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cass is recorded at frequency rank #17,896, classified as anoun, pronounced \kas\. CDS is at rank #28,477, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.de.ɛs\.

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 46373, this pair ranks #195,486 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cass vs CDS

Shared letters: cs. Private to "cass": a. Private to "CDS": d.

"cass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "CDS" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cassacss · ccass · csas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cass" and "CDS" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kas\ versus \se.de.ɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cass" or "CDS"?
"cass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,896 in our French list, against #28,477 for "CDS". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CDS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,486 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cass" and "CDS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CDS". 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 #195,486 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list