spitzvsspotsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,675
“spitz” frequency rank
#19,161
“spots” frequency rank
62836
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spitz spots
Definition Race de chien originaire de pays nordique, au museau pointu, aux petites oreilles pointues et dressées, dont la queue est fièrement dressée « en trompette », et à poil long. Pluriel de spot.

Where the eye mixes spitz and spots

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
spitz
5 ch
spots

Look-alike desk: spitz vs spots

A purely visual mix-up. spitz (\spits\) and spots (\spɔt\) 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 62836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spitz is recorded at frequency rank #43,675, classified as anoun, pronounced \spits\. spots is at rank #19,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spɔt\.

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 62836, this pair ranks #85,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of spitz vs spots

Shared letters: pst. Private to "spitz": iz. Private to "spots": o.

"spitz" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "spots" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spitzpsitz · siptz · spittz · spitzz · spizt · sppitz · sptiz · sspitz
  • spotssopts · spost · spotss · spotts · sppots · sptos · sspots

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "spitz" for "spots" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\spits\ versus \spɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "spitz" or "spots"?
"spots" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,161 in our French list, against #43,675 for "spitz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "spitz" and "spots" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spitz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spitz" and "spots" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spi vs spitz". 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 #85,031 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