cerveau

\sɛʁ.vo\

/\sɛʁ.vo\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“cerveau” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,730. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,730
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cerveau · cerveau · French

cerveau · rank #1,730 · 9 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,730
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH bâtiment

Nearest frequency peer: bâtiment (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « cerveau »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « cerveau » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cerveau vs corbeau
71% similar
cerveau vs cerveaux
88% similar
cerveau vs caveau
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cerveau
PropertyValue
Headwordcerveau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sɛʁ.vo\
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,730
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « cerveau »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).cerveause place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bâtiment » (#1,729), « civile » (#1,731), « bordeaux » (#1,728). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cerveau » est au #1,730. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around cerveau (IPA \sɛʁ.vo\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,730 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for cerveau, with forms such as "ccerveau", "cerevau", and "cerrveau". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "corbeau", "cerveaux", "caveau", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cerveau, spelled C-E-R-V-E-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale.
  2. 2
    (plus précisément) La partie supérieure de l'encéphale, régissant les fonctions supérieures : diencéphale et télencéphale.
  3. 3
    Siège des facultés mentales, de la pensée.
  4. 4
    Centre organisateur qui gère et supervise ou personne qui a mis un plan sur pied.
  5. 5
    Personne à l’intelligence remarquable ; élite intellectuelle.
  6. 6
    Partie épaisse qui ferme la cloche dans son sommet et à laquelle est attaché le battant.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cerveau appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Or, comme c’était par l’odorat qu’avait été empoisonnée Jeanne de Navarre, c’était le cerveau, seule partie du corps exclue de l’autopsie, qui devait offrir les traces du crime.
  2. J’avais comme une barre à l’estomac, et dans le cerveau quelque chose qui me brûlait. Je fus près de défaillir.

Synonyms

🧠cellules grisescervelleencéphaleganglionsmatière grisecervelletêtepensardetêtetête pensanteintellotêtecouronne

This word in other languages

brain(English)cerebro(Español)Gehirn(Deutsch)cérebro(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccerveau
  • cerevau
  • cerrveau
  • cervaeu
  • cerveua
  • cervveau
  • cevreau
  • creveau
  • ecrveau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cerveau - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ccerveau1cerevau2cerrveau1cervaeu2cerveua2cervveau1cevreau2creveau2
Edit distance from "cerveau"

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

How do you spell "cerveau"?
"cerveau" is spelled C-E-R-V-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \sɛʁ.vo\.
What does "cerveau" mean?
As a noun, "cerveau" means: Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale.
What words are commonly confused with "cerveau"?
"cerveau" is commonly confused with "corbeau", "cerveaux", "caveau". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cerveau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cerveau" is \sɛʁ.vo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cerveau" come from?
"cerveau" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cerveau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

concept#1,733députés#1,735humains#1,738revenus#1,717

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

tenter9 variantslancer9 variantspourrais9 variantspatron9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list