Which to use
“centaure” and “century” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,664
- “centaure” frequency rank
- #16,316
- “century” frequency rank
- 56980
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | centaure | century |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Être fabuleux de la mythologie grecque, moitié homme et moitié cheval, plus précisément cheval dont la tête est remplacée par un buste d’homme. | Siècle (période de cent ans) |
Where the eye mixes centaure and century
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between centaure and century
A purely visual mix-up. centaure (\sɑ̃.tɔʁ\) 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 56980, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
centaure is recorded at frequency rank #40,664, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃.tɔʁ\. 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 56980, this pair ranks #117,752 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of centaure vs century
Shared letters: cenrtu. Private to "centaure": a. Private to "century": y.
"centaure" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV · "century" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "centaure" for "century" ever safe?
Frequency check: "centaure" vs "century" - which ranks higher?
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 "centaure" 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 #117,752 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "centaure" 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 #117,752 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.