tapisvstaxisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,026
“tapis” frequency rank
#8,786
“taxis” frequency rank
12812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tapis taxis
Definition Pièce d’étoffe, tissu de laine, de soie, etc., dont on couvre une table, une estrade, le parquet d’une chambre, etc. Pression exercée avec la main pour réduire une tumeur herniaire.

Where the eye mixes tapis and taxis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tapis and taxis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
tapis
5 ch
taxis

Visual trap between tapis and taxis

A purely visual mix-up. tapis (\ta.pi\) 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 - p in “tapis” becomes x in “taxis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tapis is recorded at frequency rank #4,026, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.pi\. 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 12812, this pair ranks #403,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tapis vs taxis

Shared letters: aist. Private to "tapis": p. Private to "taxis": x.

"tapis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "taxis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tapisatpis · taips · tapiss · tappis · tapsi · tpais · ttapis
  • taxisatxis · taixs · taxiss · taxsi · taxxis · ttaxis · txais

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tapis" and "taxis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ta.pi\ versus \tak.sis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tapis" or "taxis"?
"tapis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,026 in our French list, against #8,786 for "taxis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tapis" 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 #403,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tapis" and "taxis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tari vs taxis". 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 #403,643 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