katavskiraTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,625
“kata” frequency rank
#32,875
“kira” frequency rank
81500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kata kira
Definition Forme, technique dans les arts martiaux japonais. Particularité, caractéristique, marque, élément particulier.

Where the eye mixes kata and kira

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

4 ch
kata
4 ch
kira

Look-alike desk: kata vs kira

A purely visual mix-up. kata (\ka.ta\) and kira (\ˈkira\) 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 81500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kata is recorded at frequency rank #48,625, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ta\. kira is at rank #32,875, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkira\.

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 81500, this pair ranks #18,625 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of kata vs kira

Shared letters: ak. Private to "kata": t. Private to "kira": ir.

"kata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "kira" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kata ← akta · kaat · katta · kkata · ktaa
  • kira ← ikra · kiar · kirra · kkira · kria

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kata" for "kira" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ta\ versus \ˈkira\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kata" vs "kira" - which ranks higher?
"kira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,875 in our French list, against #48,625 for "kata". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "kata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,625 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kata" and "kira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kata vs kite". 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 #18,625 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