cadranvscadresTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,891
“cadran” frequency rank
#3,442
“cadres” frequency rank
21333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadran cadres
Definition Surface sur laquelle sont tracés les chiffres des heures et où la marche du temps est indiquée soit par l’ombre d’un style, soit par une aiguille que meuvent des ressorts intérieurs. Pluriel de cadre.

Where the eye mixes cadran and cadres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cadran and cadres follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
cadran
6 ch
cadres

Why the eye confuses cadran with cadres

A purely visual mix-up. cadran (\ka.dʁɑ̃\) and cadres (\kɑdʁ\) 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 21333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadran is recorded at frequency rank #17,891, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.dʁɑ̃\. cadres is at rank #3,442, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɑdʁ\.

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 21333, this pair ranks #363,711 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cadran vs cadres

Shared letters: acdr. Private to "cadran": n. Private to "cadres": es.

"cadran" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cadres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadran ← acdran · cadarn · caddran · cadrann · cadrna · cadrran · cardan · ccadran
  • cadres ← acdres · caddres · caders · cadress · cadrres · cadrse · cardes · ccadres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cadran" and "cadres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ka.dʁɑ̃\ versus \kɑdʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cadran" vs "cadres" - which ranks higher?
"cadres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,442 in our French list, against #17,891 for "cadran". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cadres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #363,711 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadran" and "cadres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cachan vs cadran". 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 #363,711 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