cabvscerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cab” and “cer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,504
“cab” frequency rank
#46,052
“cer” frequency rank
68556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cab cer
Definition Taxi britannique. Ciel.

Where the eye mixes cab and cer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cab
3 ch
cer

Why the eye confuses cab with cer

A purely visual mix-up. cab (\kab\) and cer (\ˈʧeɾ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cab is recorded at frequency rank #22,504, classified as anoun, pronounced \kab\. cer is at rank #46,052, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈʧeɾ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 68556, this pair ranks #58,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cab vs cer

Shared letters: c. Private to "cab": ab. Private to "cer": er.

"cab" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cer" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cab" and "cer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kab\ versus \ˈʧeɾ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cab" vs "cer" - which ranks higher?
"cab" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,504 in our French list, against #46,052 for "cer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cab" and "cer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cab" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cab" and "cer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cer vs ciro". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,689 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list