Which to use
“cath” and “côte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,167
- “cath” frequency rank
- #1,288
- “côte” frequency rank
- 41455
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cath | côte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chat (animal). | Chacun des os qui forment la cage thoracique. |
Where the eye mixes cath and côte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cath and côte
A purely visual mix-up. cath (\kaːθ\) and côte (\kot\) 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 41455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cath is recorded at frequency rank #40,167, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaːθ\. côte is at rank #1,288, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.
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 41455, this pair ranks #232,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cath vs côte
Shared letters: ct. Private to "cath": ah. Private to "côte": eô.
"cath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "côte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cath ← acth · cathh · catth · ccath · ctah
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cath" and "côte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cath" or "côte" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cath" and "côte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "côte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cath" and "côte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "canto vs cath". 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 #232,973 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.