Which to use
“ceinture” and “cintre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,052
- “ceinture” frequency rank
- #26,297
- “cintre” frequency rank
- 30349
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ceinture | cintre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dispositif qui entoure. | Courbure en arcade, en demi-cercle. |
Where the eye mixes ceinture and cintre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. ceinture runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCV) against cintre's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ceinture vs cintre
A purely visual mix-up. ceinture (\sɛ̃.tyʁ\) and cintre (\sɛ̃tʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30349, 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\. cintre is at rank #26,297, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃tʁ\.
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 30349, this pair ranks #310,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ceinture vs cintre
Shared letters: ceinrt. Private to "ceinture": u. Private to "cintre": -.
"ceinture" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV · "cintre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ceinture" for "cintre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ceinture" or "cintre"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ceinture" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cintre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #310,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ceinture" and "cintre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cendré vs cintre". 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 #310,928 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.