tamisvstaxisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,577
“tamis” frequency rank
#8,786
“taxis” frequency rank
46363
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tamis taxis
Definition Sorte de crible, de sas qui sert à passer des matières pulvérulentes, les liquides troubles, etc. Pression exercée avec la main pour réduire une tumeur herniaire.

Where the eye mixes tamis and taxis

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

5 ch
tamis
5 ch
taxis

Visual trap between tamis and taxis

A purely visual mix-up. tamis (\ta.mi\) and taxis (\tak.sis\) 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 a single letter - m in “tamis” becomes x in “taxis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46363, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tamis is recorded at frequency rank #37,577, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.mi\. taxis is at rank #8,786, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tak.sis\.

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 46363, this pair ranks #195,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tamis vs taxis

Shared letters: aist. Private to "tamis": m. Private to "taxis": x.

"tamis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "taxis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tamisatmis · taims · tamiss · tammis · tamsi · tmais · ttamis
  • taxisatxis · taixs · taxiss · taxsi · taxxis · ttaxis · txais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tamis" for "taxis" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ta.mi\ versus \tak.sis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tamis" or "taxis"?
"taxis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,786 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tamis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "taxis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tamis" and "taxis" 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 #195,580 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