Which to use
“gauss” and “goûts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,902
- “gauss” frequency rank
- #5,458
- “goûts” frequency rank
- 48360
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gauss | goûts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ancienne unité de mesure cgs du champ magnétique qui valait 10⁻⁴ tesla, et dont le symbole était Gs. | Pluriel de goût. |
Where the eye mixes gauss and goûts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gauss and goûts follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses gauss with goûts
A purely visual mix-up. gauss (\ɡos\) and goûts (\ɡu\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gauss is recorded at frequency rank #42,902, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡos\. goûts is at rank #5,458, 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 48360, this pair ranks #179,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gauss vs goûts
Shared letters: gs. Private to "gauss": au. Private to "goûts": otû.
"gauss" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "goûts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- gauss ← aguss · gasus · gaus · ggauss · guass
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gauss" for "goûts" ever safe?
Which is more common, "gauss" or "goûts"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "gauss" and "goûts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gauss" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "goûts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #179,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gauss" and "goûts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gaius vs gauss". 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 #179,541 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.