ghostvsgoûtTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,636
“ghost” frequency rank
#1,293
“goût” frequency rank
16929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ghost goût
Definition Clone de données, effectué à l'aide du célèbre logiciel Ghost. Celui des cinq sens par lequel on discerne les saveurs.

Where the eye mixes ghost and goût

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ghost
4 ch
goût

Why the eye confuses ghost with goût

A purely visual mix-up. ghost (\ɡɔst\) 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 16929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ghost is recorded at frequency rank #15,636, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔst\. 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 16929, this pair ranks #385,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ghost vs goût

Shared letters: got. Private to "ghost": hs. Private to "goût": û.

"ghost" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "goût" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ghostgghost · ghhost · ghosst · ghostt · ghots · ghsot · gohst · hgost

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ghost" and "goût" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɔst\ versus \ɡu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ghost" vs "goût" - which ranks higher?
"goût" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,293 in our French list, against #15,636 for "ghost". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ghost" 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 #385,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ghost" and "goût" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ghost vs ghosts". 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 #385,587 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