Which to use
“combe” and “combles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,749
- “combe” frequency rank
- #25,936
- “combles” frequency rank
- 58685
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | combe | combles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite vallée, pli de terrain, lieu bas entouré de collines. | Logements situés immédiatement sous le toit d’un édifice. |
Where the eye mixes combe and combles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between combe and combles
A purely visual mix-up. combe (\kɔ̃b\) and combles (\kɔ̃bl\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58685, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
combe is recorded at frequency rank #32,749, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃b\. combles is at rank #25,936, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃bl\.
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 58685, this pair ranks #107,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of combe vs combles
Shared letters: bcemo. Private to "combe": -. Private to "combles": ls.
"combe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "combles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "combe" and "combles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "combe" or "combles" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "combe" and "combles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "combe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "combles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "combe" and "combles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "combe vs conde". 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 #107,540 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.