casservscasteConfusable pair

Quick tell: casser is a verb, caste is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“casser” is a verb and “caste” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,388
“casser” frequency rank
#16,315
“caste” frequency rank
19703
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casser caste
Definition Briser ; rompre. Chacune des tribus ou classes qui partagent la société de certains pays comme l’Inde ou l’ancienne Égypte.

Where the eye mixes casser and caste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
casser
5 ch
caste

Visual trap between casser and caste

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: casser is \ka.se\ while caste is \kast\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casser is recorded at frequency rank #3,388, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.se\. caste is at rank #16,315, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kast\.

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 19703, this pair ranks #371,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of casser vs caste

Shared letters: aces. Private to "casser": r. Private to "caste": t.

"casser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "caste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casseracsser · casesr · casserr · cassre · ccasser · csaser
  • casteacste · caset · casste · castte · catse · ccaste · csate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casser" and "caste" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "casser" is a verb and "caste" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "casser" or "caste" show up more?
"casser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,388 in our French list, against #16,315 for "caste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "casser" and "caste" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "casser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casser" and "caste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caste vs casus". 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 #371,960 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