ccvsculWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,839
“cc” frequency rank
#999
“cul” frequency rank
6838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cc cul
Definition Centimètre cube, cm³. Derrière d’un animal, d’un humain, ses fesses, son postérieur.

Where the eye mixes cc and cul

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
cc
3 ch
cul

Visual trap between cc and cul

A purely visual mix-up. cc (\se.se\) and cul (\ky\) 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 6838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cc is recorded at frequency rank #5,839, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.se\. cul is at rank #999, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky\.

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 6838, this pair ranks #425,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cc vs cul

Shared letters: c. Private to "cc": -. Private to "cul": lu.

"cc" · 2 letters · shape CC  ·  "cul" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cc" for "cul" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\se.se\ versus \ky\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cc" vs "cul" - which ranks higher?
"cul" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #999 in our French list, against #5,839 for "cc". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cc" and "cul" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cc" and "cul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cc vs CCE". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #425,066 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