Which to use
“cae” is a verb and “cime” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,819
- “cae” frequency rank
- #32,745
- “cime” frequency rank
- 76564
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cae | cime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe irrégulier caer. | Partie la plus haute d’une montagne, d’un rocher, d’un arbre, etc. |
Where the eye mixes cae and cime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cae runs 3 letters (CVV) against cime's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cae and cime
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cae is \ˈka.e\ while cime is \sim\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cae is recorded at frequency rank #43,819, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈka.e\. cime is at rank #32,745, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sim\.
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 76564, this pair ranks #30,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cae vs cime
Shared letters: ce. Private to "cae": a. Private to "cime": im.
"cae" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "cime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cime ← ccime · ciem · cimme · cmie · icme
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cae" for "cime" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cae" or "cime" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cae" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cae" and "cime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cae vs CCE". 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 #30,773 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.