Which to use
“carreau” and “cerveau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,826
- “carreau” frequency rank
- #1,730
- “cerveau” frequency rank
- 17556
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carreau | cerveau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet plat, ou ouverture, au contour approximativement carré. | Organe central supervisant le système nerveux des animaux présentant une céphalisation ; encéphale. |
Where the eye mixes carreau and cerveau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. carreau and cerveau follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: carreau vs cerveau
A purely visual mix-up. carreau (\ka.ʁo\) and cerveau (\sɛʁ.vo\) 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 17556, 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\. cerveau is at rank #1,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁ.vo\.
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 17556, this pair ranks #382,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of carreau vs cerveau
Shared letters: aceru. Private to "carreau": -. Private to "cerveau": v.
"carreau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV · "cerveau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "carreau" for "cerveau" ever safe?
Frequency check: "carreau" vs "cerveau" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "carreau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cerveau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carreau" and "cerveau" 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 #382,583 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.