Which to use
“grosse” and “grotte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #981
- “grosse” frequency rank
- #7,329
- “grotte” frequency rank
- 8310
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grosse | grotte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Une douzaine de douzaines. | Cavité plus ou moins profonde, dans un rocher ou dans une montagne, naturelle ou faite de main d’homme. |
Where the eye mixes grosse and grotte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grosse and grotte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between grosse and grotte
A purely visual mix-up. grosse (\ɡʁos\) and grotte (\ɡʁɔt\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grosse is recorded at frequency rank #981, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁos\. grotte is at rank #7,329, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɔt\.
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 8310, this pair ranks #420,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of grosse vs grotte
Shared letters: egor. Private to "grosse": s. Private to "grotte": t.
"grosse" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "grotte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grosse" and "grotte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "grosse" or "grotte"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "grosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #420,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grosse" and "grotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "groot vs grotte". 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 #420,452 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.