capavscepWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,218
“capa” frequency rank
#35,421
“cep” frequency rank
72639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capa cep
Definition Condensateur. Pied de vigne, et plus largement tronc d'un arbuste.

Where the eye mixes capa and cep

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
capa
3 ch
cep

Look-alike desk: capa vs cep

A purely visual mix-up. capa (\ka.pa\) and cep (\sɛp\) 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 72639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capa is recorded at frequency rank #37,218, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.pa\. cep is at rank #35,421, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛp\.

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 72639, this pair ranks #43,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of capa vs cep

Shared letters: cp. Private to "capa": a. Private to "cep": e.

"capa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cep" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capaacpa · caap · cappa · ccapa · cpaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "capa" and "cep" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.pa\ versus \sɛp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "capa" vs "cep" - which ranks higher?
"cep" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,421 in our French list, against #37,218 for "capa". 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 "capa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cep" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capa" and "cep" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capa vs coupa". 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 #43,304 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