Which to use
“gault” and “goût” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,901
- “gault” frequency rank
- #1,293
- “goût” frequency rank
- 44194
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gault | goût |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mot usité dans quelques comtés d’Angleterre pour désigner une couche de marne bleue qui sépare en deux étages (le supérieur, et l’inférieur ou gault) le grès vert du terrain crétacé. On appelle cet étage stratigraphique le Gaultien. | Celui des cinq sens par lequel on discerne les saveurs. |
Where the eye mixes gault and goût
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gault runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against goût's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses gault with goût
A purely visual mix-up. gault (\ɡolt\) and goût (\ɡu\) 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 44194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gault is recorded at frequency rank #42,901, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡolt\. goût is at rank #1,293, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡu\.
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 44194, this pair ranks #212,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gault vs goût
Shared letters: gt. Private to "gault": alu. Private to "goût": oû.
"gault" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "goût" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- gault ← agult · galut · gaullt · gaultt · gautl · ggault · gualt
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gault" for "goût" ever safe?
Which is more common, "gault" or "goût"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "gault" and "goût" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gault" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "goût" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #212,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gault" and "goût" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gault vs gut". 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 #212,328 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.