cecvscoxWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cec is a adjective, cox is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cec” is an adjective and “cox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,636
“cec” frequency rank
#19,493
“cox” frequency rank
66129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cec cox
Definition Aveugle. Variété de pommier.

Where the eye mixes cec and cox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. cec and cox follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
cec
3 ch
cox

Look-alike desk: cec vs cox

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cec is \ˈsek\ while cox is \koks\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66129, 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\. cox is at rank #19,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \koks\.

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 66129, this pair ranks #69,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cec vs cox

Shared letters: c. Private to "cec": e. Private to "cox": ox.

"cec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cec" for "cox" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cec" is an adjective and "cox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cec" or "cox"?
"cox" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,493 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cec" and "cox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cec". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #69,166 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