kilosvskitsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,472
“kilos” frequency rank
#22,600
“kits” frequency rank
28072
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kilos kits
Definition Pluriel de kilo. Pluriel de kit.

Where the eye mixes kilos and kits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. kilos runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against kits's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
kilos
4 ch
kits

Look-alike desk: kilos vs kits

A purely visual mix-up. kilos (\ki.lo\) and kits (\kit\) 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 28072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kilos is recorded at frequency rank #5,472, classified as anoun, pronounced \ki.lo\. kits is at rank #22,600, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kit\.

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 28072, this pair ranks #325,079 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kilos vs kits

Shared letters: iks. Private to "kilos": lo. Private to "kits": t.

"kilos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "kits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kilos ← iklos · killos · kiloss · kilso · kiols · kkilos · klios
  • kits ← ikts · kist · kitss · kitts · kkits · ktis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kilos" for "kits" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ki.lo\ versus \kit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "kilos" or "kits"?
"kilos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,472 in our French list, against #22,600 for "kits". 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 "kilos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,079 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kilos" and "kits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kiko vs kits". 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 #325,079 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