cathvscutTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,167
“cath” frequency rank
#17,668
“cut” frequency rank
57835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cath cut
Definition Chat (animal). Pointage permettant de se qualifier.

Where the eye mixes cath and cut

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

4 ch
cath
3 ch
cut

Why the eye confuses cath with cut

A purely visual mix-up. cath (\kaːθ\) and cut (\kœt\) 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 57835, 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\. cut is at rank #17,668, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kœt\.

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 57835, this pair ranks #112,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cath vs cut

Shared letters: ct. Private to "cath": ah. Private to "cut": u.

"cath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cathacth · cathh · catth · ccath · ctah

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cath" and "cut" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaːθ\ versus \kœt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cath" or "cut"?
"cut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,668 in our French list, against #40,167 for "cath". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cath" and "cut" 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 #112,657 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