cadetvscodésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,358
“cadet” frequency rank
#47,232
“codés” frequency rank
58590
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadet codés
Definition (En parlant d’un fils ou d’une fille, d’un frère ou d’une sœur) Qui est né après l'aîné, qui est le deuxième, qui est le plus jeune. Masculin pluriel de codé.

Where the eye mixes cadet and codés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cadet
5 ch
codés

Visual trap between cadet and codés

A purely visual mix-up. cadet (\ka.dɛ\) and codés (\kɔ.de\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadet is recorded at frequency rank #11,358, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.dɛ\. codés is at rank #47,232, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.de\.

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 58590, this pair ranks #108,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cadet vs codés

Shared letters: cd. Private to "cadet": aet. Private to "codés": osé.

"cadet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "codés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadetacdet · caddet · cadett · cadte · caedt · ccadet · cdaet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cadet" for "codés" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.dɛ\ versus \kɔ.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cadet" vs "codés" - which ranks higher?
"cadet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,358 in our French list, against #47,232 for "codés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "codés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #108,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadet" and "codés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "codés vs conde". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #108,178 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