centrevscésureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#344
“centre” frequency rank
#44,409
“césure” frequency rank
44753
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature centre césure
Definition Point qui, dans un cercle ou une sphère, est à égale distance de tous les points de la circonférence de ce cercle ou de la surface de cette sphère. Coupure d’un vers. Sorte de repos qui est placé en des endroits différents selon la nature des vers.

Where the eye mixes centre and césure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. centre (CVCCCV) and césure (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
centre
6 ch
césure

Visual trap between centre and césure

A purely visual mix-up. centre (\sɑ̃tʁ\) and césure (\se.zyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44753, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

centre is recorded at frequency rank #344, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃tʁ\. césure is at rank #44,409, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.zyʁ\.

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 44753, this pair ranks #208,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of centre vs césure

Shared letters: cer. Private to "centre": nt. Private to "césure": sué.

"centre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "césure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • centre ← ccentre · cenntre · cenrte · centrre · centtre · cetnre · cnetre · ecntre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "centre" and "césure" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɑ̃tʁ\ versus \se.zyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "centre" vs "césure" - which ranks higher?
"centre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #344 in our French list, against #44,409 for "césure". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "centre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "césure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "centre" and "césure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs césure". 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 #208,088 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