cadrevscoreConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#644
“cadre” frequency rank
#16,102
“core” frequency rank
16746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadre core
Definition Bordure de bois, de marbre, de bronze, etc., dans laquelle on place un tableau, une estampe, un ouvrage de sculpture, etc. Centre, noyau.

Where the eye mixes cadre and core

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cadre
4 ch
core

Why the eye confuses cadre with core

A purely visual mix-up. cadre (\kadʁ\) and core (\kɔː\) 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 16746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadre is recorded at frequency rank #644, classified as anoun, pronounced \kadʁ\. core is at rank #16,102, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔː\.

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 16746, this pair ranks #386,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cadre vs core

Shared letters: cer. Private to "cadre": ad. Private to "core": o.

"cadre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "core" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadreacdre · caddre · cader · cadrre · carde · ccadre · cdare
  • coreccore · coer · corre · croe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cadre" for "core" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kadʁ\ versus \kɔː\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cadre" or "core" show up more?
"cadre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #644 in our French list, against #16,102 for "core". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "core" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadre" and "core" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs core". 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 #386,460 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