cerveau
\sɛʁ.vo\
The verdict
“cerveau” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #1,730 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,730
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale.
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 | cerveau |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \sɛʁ.vo\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,730 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cerveau” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for cerveau is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɛʁ.vo\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,730 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale.
- 2(plus précisément) La partie supérieure de l'encéphale, régissant les fonctions supérieures : diencéphale et télencéphale.
- 3Siège des facultés mentales, de la pensée.
- 4Centre organisateur qui gère et supervise ou personne qui a mis un plan sur pied.
- 5Personne à l’intelligence remarquable ; élite intellectuelle.
- 6Partie épaisse qui ferme la cloche dans son sommet et à laquelle est attaché le battant.
This word in other languages
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.
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"?
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Using “cerveau”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-E-R-V-E-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sɛʁ.vo\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “corbeau” - see the side-by-side comparison. cerveau vs corbeau
- 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.