Which to use
“carie” and “cerise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,453
- “carie” frequency rank
- #11,360
- “cerise” frequency rank
- 45813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carie | cerise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Destruction des os et des dents par voie d’ulcération. | Fruit comestible du cerisier charnu, petit et sphérique et à la peau généralement rouge, qui est une drupe. |
Where the eye mixes carie and cerise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. carie runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against cerise's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses carie with cerise
A purely visual mix-up. carie (\ka.ʁi\) and cerise (\sə.ʁiz\) 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 45813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carie is recorded at frequency rank #34,453, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁi\. cerise is at rank #11,360, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sə.ʁiz\.
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 45813, this pair ranks #199,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of carie vs cerise
Shared letters: ceir. Private to "carie": a. Private to "cerise": s.
"carie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "cerise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "carie" and "cerise" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "carie" vs "cerise" - which ranks higher?
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 "carie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cerise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carie" and "cerise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carie vs carrez". 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 #199,838 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.