kakivskimiConfusable pair

Quick tell: kaki is a noun, kimi is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kaki” is a noun and “kimi” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,574
“kaki” frequency rank
#34,155
“kimi” frequency rank
65729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kaki kimi
Definition Plaqueminier (Diospyros kaki Thunb.). Quelque.

Where the eye mixes kaki and kimi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. kaki and kimi follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
kaki
4 ch
kimi

Why the eye confuses kaki with kimi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kaki is \ka.ki\ while kimi is \cimi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kaki is recorded at frequency rank #31,574, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ki\. kimi is at rank #34,155, tagged as anadj, pronounced \cimi\.

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 65729, this pair ranks #71,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of kaki vs kimi

Shared letters: ik. Private to "kaki": a. Private to "kimi": m.

"kaki" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "kimi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kaki ← akki · kaik · kakki · kkai · kkaki
  • kimi ← ikmi · kiim · kimmi · kkimi · kmii

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kaki" for "kimi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kaki" is a noun and "kimi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kaki" or "kimi"?
"kaki" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,574 in our French list, against #34,155 for "kimi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "kaki" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kimi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kaki" and "kimi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kiko vs kimi". 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 #71,033 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