Which to use
“carreau” and “cerceau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,826
- “carreau” frequency rank
- #43,833
- “cerceau” frequency rank
- 59659
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carreau | cerceau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet plat, ou ouverture, au contour approximativement carré. | Lame de fer mince ou latte de bois flexible, formant un cercle, dont on se sert pour maintenir les douves des tonneaux, des cuves, etc. |
Where the eye mixes carreau and cerceau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. carreau and cerceau follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses carreau with cerceau
A purely visual mix-up. carreau (\ka.ʁo\) and cerceau (\sɛʁ.so\) 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 59659, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carreau is recorded at frequency rank #15,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁo\. cerceau is at rank #43,833, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁ.so\.
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 59659, this pair ranks #101,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of carreau vs cerceau
Shared letters: aceru. Private to "carreau": -. Private to "cerceau": -.
"carreau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV · "cerceau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "carreau" and "cerceau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "carreau" or "cerceau" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "carreau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cerceau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #101,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carreau" and "cerceau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carreau 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 #101,914 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.