cortex

\kɔʁ.tɛks\

/\kɔʁ.tɛks\/ noun

The verdict

“cortex” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #17,397. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#17,397
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Couche superficielle ou périphérique d’un tissu organique.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cortex · cortex · French

cortex · rank #17,397 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #17,397
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH correspondait

Nearest frequency peer: correspondait (-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 « cortex »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « cortex » 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).

cortex vs côte
50% similar
cortex vs coûte
67% similar
cortex vs côtes
50% similar

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

Key facts for cortex
PropertyValue
Headwordcortex
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔʁ.tɛks\
Letters6
Frequency rank#17,397
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « cortex »

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « correspondait » (#17,396), « couchée » (#17,398), « correctionnel » (#17,395). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cortex » est au #17,397. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around cortex (IPA \kɔʁ.tɛks\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #17,397 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for cortex, with forms such as "ccortex", "coretx", and "corrtex". 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, "côte", "coûte", "côtes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is cortex, spelled C-O-R-T-E-X.

Definition

  1. 1
    Couche superficielle ou périphérique d’un tissu organique.
  2. 2
    Cortex cérébral.
  3. 3
    Cylindre cortical.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le cortex cérébral.
  2. Le cortex n’est pas seulement, par le système pyramidal, le subtil instrument de l’activité cinétique supérieure, il est aussi chez l’homme le contrôle suprême et l’instance dernière des activités sub-corticales.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccortex
  • coretx
  • corrtex
  • cortexx
  • corttex
  • cortxe
  • cotrex
  • crotex
  • ocrtex

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cortex - 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.

ccortex1coretx2corrtex1cortexx1corttex1cortxe2cotrex2crotex2
Edit distance from "cortex"

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 "cortex"?
"cortex" is spelled C-O-R-T-E-X. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔʁ.tɛks\.
What does "cortex" mean?
As a noun, "cortex" means: Couche superficielle ou périphérique d’un tissu organique.
What words are commonly confused with "cortex"?
"cortex" is commonly confused with "côte", "coûte", "côtes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cortex"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cortex" is \kɔʁ.tɛks\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cortex" come from?
"cortex" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "cortex", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list