coulissevsculasseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,499
“coulisse” frequency rank
#32,364
“culasse” frequency rank
55863
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coulisse culasse
Definition Longue rainure par laquelle on fait glisser, aller et revenir un châssis, une fenêtre, une porte, un tiroir, etc. Partie de derrière d’une arme à feu, canon, fusil, revolver, etc.

Where the eye mixes coulisse and culasse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
coulisse
7 ch
culasse

Look-alike desk: coulisse vs culasse

A purely visual mix-up. coulisse (\ku.lis\) and culasse (\ky.las\) 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 55863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coulisse is recorded at frequency rank #23,499, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.lis\. culasse is at rank #32,364, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky.las\.

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 55863, this pair ranks #124,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coulisse vs culasse

Shared letters: celsu. Private to "coulisse": io. Private to "culasse": a.

"coulisse" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV  ·  "culasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coulisseccoulisse · coluisse · couilsse · coulise · coullisse · coulsise · cuolisse · oculisse
  • culassecculasse · cluasse · cualsse · culase · culases · cullasse · culsase · uclasse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coulisse" and "culasse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ku.lis\ versus \ky.las\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coulisse" or "culasse"?
"coulisse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,499 in our French list, against #32,364 for "culasse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coulisse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "culasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coulisse" and "culasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cuirasse vs culasse". 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 #124,728 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