cambrevscombleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,213
“cambre” frequency rank
#7,166
“comble” frequency rank
49379
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cambre comble
Definition Cambrure. Faîte ; couronnement d’un édifice.

Where the eye mixes cambre and comble

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cambre
6 ch
comble

Why the eye confuses cambre with comble

A purely visual mix-up. cambre (\kɑ̃bʁ\) and comble (\kɔ̃bl\) 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 49379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cambre is recorded at frequency rank #42,213, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑ̃bʁ\. comble is at rank #7,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃bl\.

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 49379, this pair ranks #171,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cambre vs comble

Shared letters: bcem. Private to "cambre": ar. Private to "comble": lo.

"cambre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "comble" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cambreacmbre · cabmre · cambbre · camber · cambrre · cammbre · camrbe · ccambre
  • combleccomble · cmoble · cobmle · combble · combel · comblle · comlbe · commble

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cambre" for "comble" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɑ̃bʁ\ versus \kɔ̃bl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cambre" vs "comble" - which ranks higher?
"comble" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,166 in our French list, against #42,213 for "cambre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cambre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comble" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #171,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cambre" and "comble" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cambon vs cambre". 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 #171,181 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