talusvstapasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,508
“talus” frequency rank
#35,751
“tapas” frequency rank
61259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature talus tapas
Definition Pente, inclinaison. Pluriel de tapa.

Where the eye mixes talus and tapas

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

5 ch
talus
5 ch
tapas

Why the eye confuses talus with tapas

A purely visual mix-up. talus (\ta.ly\) and tapas (\ta.pas\) 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 61259, 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\. tapas is at rank #35,751, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ta.pas\.

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 61259, this pair ranks #93,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of talus vs tapas

Shared letters: ast. Private to "talus": lu. Private to "tapas": p.

"talus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tapas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • talusatlus · tallus · talsu · taluss · tauls · tlaus · ttalus
  • tapasatpas · taaps · tapass · tappas · tapsa · tpaas · ttapas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "talus" for "tapas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ta.ly\ versus \ta.pas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "talus" vs "tapas" - which ranks higher?
"talus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,508 in our French list, against #35,751 for "tapas". 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 "tapas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "talus" and "tapas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "takes vs tapas". 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 #93,216 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