Which to use
“ceinture” and “century” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,052
- “ceinture” frequency rank
- #16,316
- “century” frequency rank
- 20368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ceinture | century |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dispositif qui entoure. | Siècle (période de cent ans) |
Where the eye mixes ceinture and century
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. ceinture runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCV) against century's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between ceinture and century
A purely visual mix-up. ceinture (\sɛ̃.tyʁ\) and century (\ˈsɛn.tʃə.ɹi\) 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 20368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ceinture is recorded at frequency rank #4,052, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃.tyʁ\. century is at rank #16,316, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɛn.tʃə.ɹi\.
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 20368, this pair ranks #368,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ceinture vs century
Shared letters: cenrtu. Private to "ceinture": i. Private to "century": y.
"ceinture" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV · "century" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ceinture" for "century" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ceinture" or "century"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ceinture" and "century" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ceinture" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "century" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #368,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ceinture" and "century" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "centers vs century". 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 #368,638 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.