cèdrevscureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,508
“cèdre” frequency rank
#7,048
“cure” frequency rank
35556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cèdre cure
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. Soin, souci. — En ce sens, il est surtout usité dans l’expression : n’avoir cure.

Where the eye mixes cèdre and cure

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

5 ch
cèdre
4 ch
cure

Look-alike desk: cèdre vs cure

A purely visual mix-up. cèdre (\sɛdʁ\) and cure (\kyʁ\) 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 35556, 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\. cure is at rank #7,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ\.

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 35556, this pair ranks #275,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cèdre vs cure

Shared letters: cer. Private to "cèdre": dè. Private to "cure": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cure ← ccure · cuer · curre · ucre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cèdre" and "cure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sɛdʁ\ versus \kyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cèdre" or "cure"?
"cure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,048 in our French list, against #28,508 for "cèdre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cèdre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cèdre" and "cure" 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 #275,863 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