cecvscocuConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#46,636
“cec” frequency rank
#25,931
“cocu” frequency rank
72567
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cec cocu
Definition Aveugle. Dupé, trompé, victime d’infidélité conjugale.

Where the eye mixes cec and cocu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cec runs 3 letters (CVC) against cocu's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
cec
4 ch
cocu

Visual trap between cec and cocu

A purely visual mix-up. cec (\ˈsek\) and cocu (\kɔ.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 72567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cec is recorded at frequency rank #46,636, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈsek\. cocu is at rank #25,931, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.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 72567, this pair ranks #43,549 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cec vs cocu

Shared letters: c. Private to "cec": e. Private to "cocu": ou.

"cec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cocu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cocu ← ccocu · ccou · coccu · couc · occu

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cec" and "cocu" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈsek\ versus \kɔ.ky\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cec" or "cocu"?
"cocu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,931 in our French list, against #46,636 for "cec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cocu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,549 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cec" and "cocu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cec". 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 #43,549 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