squarevssquatsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,930
“square” frequency rank
#36,601
“squats” frequency rank
45531
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature square squats
Definition Petit jardin public, souvent établi au milieu d’une place. Pluriel de squat.

Where the eye mixes square and squats

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
square
6 ch
squats

Look-alike desk: square vs squats

A purely visual mix-up. square (\skwaʁ\) and squats (\skwat\) 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 45531, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

square is recorded at frequency rank #8,930, classified as anoun, pronounced \skwaʁ\. squats is at rank #36,601, tagged as anoun, pronounced \skwat\.

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 45531, this pair ranks #202,049 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of square vs squats

Shared letters: aqsu. Private to "square": er. Private to "squats": t.

"square" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "squats" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • squareqsuare · sqaure · sqquare · squaer · squarre · squrae · ssquare · suqare
  • squatsqsuats · sqauts · sqquats · squast · squatss · squatts · squtas · ssquats

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "square" for "squats" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\skwaʁ\ versus \skwat\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "square" or "squats"?
"square" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,930 in our French list, against #36,601 for "squats". 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 "square" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "squats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,049 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "square" and "squats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "squats vs squatte". 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 #202,049 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