cassisvscaussesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,242
“cassis” frequency rank
#48,974
“causses” frequency rank
74216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cassis causses
Definition Arbrisseau produisant le fruit du même nom, de nom scientifique Ribes nigrum. Pluriel de causse.

Where the eye mixes cassis and causses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cassis runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against causses's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cassis
7 ch
causses

Why the eye confuses cassis with causses

A purely visual mix-up. cassis (\ka.sis\) and causses (\kos\) 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 74216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cassis is recorded at frequency rank #25,242, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.sis\. causses is at rank #48,974, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kos\.

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 74216, this pair ranks #37,860 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cassis vs causses

Shared letters: acs. Private to "cassis": i. Private to "causses": eu.

"cassis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "causses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cassis ← acssis · casis · casiss · cassiss · casssi · ccassis · csasis
  • causses ← acusses · casuses · causess · caussess · caussse · ccausses · cuasses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cassis" for "causses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.sis\ versus \kos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cassis" or "causses" show up more?
"cassis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,242 in our French list, against #48,974 for "causses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cassis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,860 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cassis" and "causses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causses vs crosses". 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 #37,860 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