Which to use
“cass” and “clés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,896
- “cass” frequency rank
- #2,666
- “clés” frequency rank
- 20562
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cass | clés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cassis. | Pluriel de clé. |
Where the eye mixes cass and clés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cass and clés
A purely visual mix-up. cass (\kas\) and clés (\kle\) 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 20562, 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\. clés is at rank #2,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kle\.
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 20562, this pair ranks #367,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cass vs clés
Shared letters: cs. Private to "cass": a. Private to "clés": lé.
"cass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "clés" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cass ← acss · ccass · csas
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cass" and "clés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cass" or "clés" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cass" and "clés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #367,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cass" and "clés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs cass". 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 #367,634 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.