cèdre vs code, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#28,508
“cèdre” frequency rank: #818
“code” frequency rank: 29326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cèdre	code
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.	Ensemble de lois ou d’ordonnances relatives à une matière spéciale ou réunies par le législateur.

Where the eye mixes cèdre and code

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cèdre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against code's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch

cèdre

4 ch

code

Visual trap between cèdre and code

A purely visual mix-up. cèdre (\sɛdʁ\) and code (\kɔd\) 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 29326, 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\. code is at rank #818, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔd\.

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 29326, this pair ranks #317,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cèdre vs code

Shared letters: cde. Private to "cèdre": rè. Private to "code": o.

"cèdre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "code" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

code ← ccode · cdoe · codde · coed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cèdre" and "code" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\sɛdʁ\ versus \kɔd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "cèdre" or "code"?

"code" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #818 in our French list, against #28,508 for "cèdre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "cèdre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "code" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #317,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cèdre" and "code" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cedar vs cèdre". 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 #317,367 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.