Which to use
“tamis” is a noun and “thaïs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,577
- “tamis” frequency rank
- #42,083
- “thaïs” frequency rank
- 79660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tamis | thaïs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de crible, de sas qui sert à passer des matières pulvérulentes, les liquides troubles, etc. | Masculin pluriel de thaï. |
Where the eye mixes tamis and thaïs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tamis (CVCVC) and thaïs (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: tamis vs thaïs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tamis is \ta.mi\ while thaïs is \taj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79660, 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\. thaïs is at rank #42,083, tagged as anadj, pronounced \taj\.
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 79660, this pair ranks #22,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tamis vs thaïs
Shared letters: ast. Private to "tamis": im. Private to "thaïs": hï.
"tamis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "thaïs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tamis ← atmis · taims · tamiss · tammis · tamsi · tmais · ttamis
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tamis" and "thaïs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "tamis" or "thaïs" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tamis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thaïs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tamis" and "thaïs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thaïs vs thons". 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 #22,764 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.