talusvstamisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#25,508
“talus” frequency rank
#37,577
“tamis” frequency rank
63085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature talus tamis
Definition Pente, inclinaison. Sorte de crible, de sas qui sert à passer des matières pulvérulentes, les liquides troubles, etc.

Where the eye mixes talus and tamis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. talus and tamis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
talus
5 ch
tamis

Why the eye confuses talus with tamis

A purely visual mix-up. talus (\ta.ly\) and tamis (\ta.mi\) 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 63085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

talus is recorded at frequency rank #25,508, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.ly\. tamis is at rank #37,577, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ta.mi\.

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 63085, this pair ranks #83,788 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of talus vs tamis

Shared letters: ast. Private to "talus": lu. Private to "tamis": im.

"talus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tamis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • talus ← atlus · tallus · talsu · taluss · tauls · tlaus · ttalus
  • tamis ← atmis · taims · tamiss · tammis · tamsi · tmais · ttamis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "talus" and "tamis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ta.ly\ versus \ta.mi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "talus" vs "tamis" - which ranks higher?
"talus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,508 in our French list, against #37,577 for "tamis". 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 "talus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tamis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,788 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "talus" and "tamis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tamis vs tari". 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 #83,788 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