cathvsCteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,167
“cath” frequency rank
#42,264
“Cte” frequency rank
82431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cath Cte
Definition Chat (animal). Comte.

Where the eye mixes cath and Cte

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

4 ch
cath
3 ch
Cte

Visual trap between cath and Cte

A purely visual mix-up. cath (\kaːθ\) and Cte (\kɔ̃t\) 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 82431, 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\. Cte is at rank #42,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\.

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 82431, this pair ranks #16,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cath vs Cte

Shared letters: ct. Private to "cath": ah. Private to "Cte": e.

"cath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Cte" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cathacth · cathh · catth · ccath · ctah

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cath" and "Cte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kaːθ\ versus \kɔ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cath" or "Cte"?
"cath" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,167 in our French list, against #42,264 for "Cte". 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 "cath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cath" and "Cte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs Cte". 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 #16,761 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