caronvscarteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“caron” and “carte” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,108
“caron” frequency rank
#23,487
“carte” frequency rank
67595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caron carte
Definition háček A bill of fare; a menu.

Where the eye mixes caron and carte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. caron (CVCVC) and carte (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
caron
5 ch
carte

Look-alike desk: caron vs carte

A purely visual mix-up. caron (/ˈkæɹən/) and carte (/kɑː(ɹ)t/) 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 67595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caron is recorded at frequency rank #44,108, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkæɹən/. carte is at rank #23,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɑː(ɹ)t/.

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 67595, this pair ranks #62,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caron vs carte

Shared letters: acr. Private to "caron": no. Private to "carte": et.

"caron" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "carte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caron ← carno · caronn · carron · ccaron · craon
  • carte ← acrte · caret · carrte · cartte · ccarte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caron" for "carte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkæɹən/ versus /kɑː(ɹ)t/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caron" or "carte"?
"carte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,487 in our English list, against #44,108 for "caron". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caron" and "carte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caron vs crone". 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 #62,616 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list