cellesvscelteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: celles is a noun, celte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“celles” is a noun and “celte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#704
“celles” frequency rank
#27,360
“celte” frequency rank
28064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celles celte
Definition Pluriel de celle. Relatif aux Celtes.

Where the eye mixes celles and celte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
celles
5 ch
celte

Why the eye confuses celles with celte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: celles is \sɛl\ while celte is \sɛlt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celles is recorded at frequency rank #704, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\. celte is at rank #27,360, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛlt\.

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 28064, this pair ranks #325,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of celles vs celte

Shared letters: cel. Private to "celles": s. Private to "celte": t.

"celles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "celte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cellesccelles · celels · celes · celless · cellse · cleles · eclles
  • celteccelte · celet · cellte · celtte · cetle · clete · eclte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "celles" for "celte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "celles" is a noun and "celte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "celles" vs "celte" - which ranks higher?
"celles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #704 in our French list, against #27,360 for "celte". 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 "celles" and "celte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "celles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "celte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "celles" and "celte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calée vs celte". 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 #325,126 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