cette
\sɛt\
The verdict
“cette” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #55. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #55
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - Féminin singulier du déterminant démonstratif ce.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cette · cette · French
cette · rank #55 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #55
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH ils
Nearest frequency peer: ils (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “cette”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- bien
bien
99,948 corpus weight
- ils
ils
99,947 corpus weight
- cette
cette
99,946 corpus weight
- faire
faire
99,945 corpus weight
- sa
sa
99,944 corpus weight
- aux
aux
99,943 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “cette” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | cette |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Determiner |
| IPA | \sɛt\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #55 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cette” sits in French frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around cette (IPA \sɛt\), adeterminer. Corpus frequency is #55 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Féminin singulier du déterminant démonstratif ce.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for cette, with forms such as "ccette", "cete", and "cetet". 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, "Cte", "cité", "côte", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is cette, spelled C-E-T-T-E.
Definition
- 1Féminin singulier du déterminant démonstratif ce.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cette appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Au XVIIᵉ siècle, l’Église catholique vit sur l’héritage du concile de Trente : alors que la question confessionnelle se stabilise au détriment des protestants — de l’Édit de Nantes en 1598 à sa révocation en 1685 — cette Église tridentinise ses orientations et ses institutions.
– « Ah ! que n’ai-je mis bas tout un nœud de vipères, Plutôt que de nourrir cette dérision ! »
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccette
- cete
- cetet
- ctete
- ectte
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cette - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cette"?
What does "cette" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cette"?
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What language does "cette" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cette", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
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.