Which to use
“ghosts” and “goûts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,636
- “ghosts” frequency rank
- #5,458
- “goûts” frequency rank
- 51094
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ghosts | goûts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de ghost. | Pluriel de goût. |
Where the eye mixes ghosts and goûts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ghosts runs 6 letters (CCVCCC) against goûts's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses ghosts with goûts
A purely visual mix-up. ghosts (\ɡɔst\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51094, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ghosts is recorded at frequency rank #45,636, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔst\. 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 51094, this pair ranks #157,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ghosts vs goûts
Shared letters: gost. Private to "ghosts": h. Private to "goûts": û.
"ghosts" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "goûts" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ghosts ← gghosts · ghhosts · ghossts · ghostss · ghostts · ghotss · ghsots · gohsts
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ghosts" and "goûts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ghosts" or "goûts"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ghosts" and "goûts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ghosts" 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 #157,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ghosts" and "goûts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ghosts vs gloss". 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 #157,645 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.