Which to use
“cèdre” and “cerne” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,508
- “cèdre” frequency rank
- #43,332
- “cerne” frequency rank
- 71840
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cèdre | cerne |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce d’arbre du genre Cedrus, conifère de grande taille de la famille des Pinacées, aux branches horizontales en plans superposés et à cônes globuleux et dressés, souvent utilisé pour l’ornementation et dont le bois passe pour incorruptible. | Cercle sombre qui se forme autour de l’œil. |
Where the eye mixes cèdre and cerne
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cèdre and cerne follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cèdre and cerne
A purely visual mix-up. cèdre (\sɛdʁ\) and cerne (\sɛʁn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cèdre is recorded at frequency rank #28,508, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛdʁ\. cerne is at rank #43,332, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁn\.
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 71840, this pair ranks #46,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cèdre vs cerne
Shared letters: cer. Private to "cèdre": dè. Private to "cerne": n.
"cèdre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cerne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cerne ← ccerne · cenre · ceren · cernne · cerrne · crene · ecrne
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cèdre" for "cerne" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cèdre" or "cerne" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cèdre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cerne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cèdre" and "cerne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerne vs CNE". 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 #46,086 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.