cadransvscadresConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#42,210
“cadrans” frequency rank
#3,442
“cadres” frequency rank
45652
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadrans cadres
Definition Pluriel de cadran. Pluriel de cadre.

Where the eye mixes cadrans and cadres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cadrans runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against cadres's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
cadrans
6 ch
cadres

Look-alike desk: cadrans vs cadres

A purely visual mix-up. cadrans (\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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadrans is recorded at frequency rank #42,210, 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 45652, this pair ranks #201,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cadrans vs cadres

Shared letters: acdrs. Private to "cadrans": n. Private to "cadres": e.

"cadrans" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "cadres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadrans ← acdrans · cadarns · caddrans · cadranns · cadranss · cadrasn · cadrnas · cadrrans
  • cadres ← acdres · caddres · caders · cadress · cadrres · cadrse · cardes · ccadres

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cadrans" for "cadres" ever safe?
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.
In ordinary French text, does "cadrans" or "cadres" show up more?
"cadres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,442 in our French list, against #42,210 for "cadrans". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadrans" 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 #201,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadrans" and "cadres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cadrans vs crans". 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 #201,108 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