cellevscueilleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#254
“celle” frequency rank
#42,265
“cueille” frequency rank
42519
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celle cueille
Definition Compartiment des bains romains. Action de cueillir.

Where the eye mixes celle and cueille

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
celle
7 ch
cueille

Why the eye confuses celle with cueille

A purely visual mix-up. celle (\sɛl\) and cueille (\kœj\) 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 42519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celle is recorded at frequency rank #254, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\. cueille is at rank #42,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kœj\.

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 42519, this pair ranks #225,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of celle vs cueille

Shared letters: cel. Private to "celle": -. Private to "cueille": iu.

"celle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cueille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • celleccelle · cele · celel · clele · eclle
  • cueilleccueille · ceuille · cueile · cueilel · cuelile · cuielle · uceille

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "celle" and "cueille" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɛl\ versus \kœj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "celle" or "cueille"?
"celle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #254 in our French list, against #42,265 for "cueille". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "celle" and "cueille" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "celle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cueille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "celle" and "cueille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédille vs cueille". 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 #225,004 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