cèdresvscuresTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,212
“cèdres” frequency rank
#30,120
“cures” frequency rank
71332
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cèdres cures
Definition Pluriel de cèdre Pluriel de cure.

Where the eye mixes cèdres and cures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cèdres runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against cures's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cèdres
5 ch
cures

Visual trap between cèdres and cures

A purely visual mix-up. cèdres (\sɛdʁ\) and cures (\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 71332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cèdres is recorded at frequency rank #41,212, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛdʁ\. cures is at rank #30,120, 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 71332, this pair ranks #47,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cèdres vs cures

Shared letters: cers. Private to "cèdres": dè. Private to "cures": u.

"cèdres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cures" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cures ← ccures · cuers · curess · curres · curse · ucres

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cèdres" for "cures" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɛdʁ\ versus \kyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cèdres" vs "cures" - which ranks higher?
"cures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,120 in our French list, against #41,212 for "cèdres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cèdres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cèdres" and "cures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédez vs cèdres". 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 #47,916 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