cerne
\sɛʁn\
The verdict
“cerne” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #43,332 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #43,332
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Cercle sombre qui se forme autour de l’œil.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cerne |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \sɛʁn\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #43,332 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cerne” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for cerne is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɛʁn\. Corpus data places it at rank #43,332 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cerne, with forms such as "ccerne", "cenre", and "ceren". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Cré", "CNE", "crée", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cerne, spelled C-E-R-N-E.
Definition
- 1Cercle sombre qui se forme autour de l’œil.
- 2Cercle livide autour d’une plaie.
- 3Un des cercles concentriques d’un tronc d’arbre, coupé en travers.
- 4Trait délimitant une forme dans un dessin ou une peinture.
- 5Cercle nébuleux qui entoure quelquefois le disque de la lune.
- 6Cercle qui, sur une étoffe, entoure la place d’une tache qu’on vient de nettoyer.
- 7Cercle tracé sur la terre, sur le sable, etc.
- 8Trou circulaire au pied d’un arbre.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccerne,cenre,ceren,cernne,cerrne,crene,ecrne
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cerne - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cerne”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-E-R-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sɛʁn\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Cré” - see the side-by-side comparison. cerne vs Cré
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.