cèdrevsCréWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cèdre is a noun, Cré is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cèdre” is a noun and “Cré” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,508
“cèdre” frequency rank
#40,203
“Cré” frequency rank
68711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cèdre Cré
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. Ancien nom de la commune française Cré-sur-Loir.

Where the eye mixes cèdre and Cré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cèdre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Cré's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cèdre
3 ch
Cré

Why the eye confuses cèdre with Cré

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cèdre is \sɛdʁ\ while Cré is \kʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68711, 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\. Cré is at rank #40,203, tagged as aname, pronounced \kʁe\.

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 68711, this pair ranks #58,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cèdre vs Cré

Shared letters: cr. Private to "cèdre": deè. Private to "Cré": é.

"cèdre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Cré" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cèdre" and "Cré" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cèdre" is a noun and "Cré" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cèdre" vs "Cré" - which ranks higher?
"cèdre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,508 in our French list, against #40,203 for "Cré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cèdre" and "Cré" 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 "Cré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cèdre" and "Cré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs Cré". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,006 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