cervscoxWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,052
“cer” frequency rank
#19,493
“cox” frequency rank
65545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cer cox
Definition Ciel. Variété de pommier.

Where the eye mixes cer and cox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. cer and cox follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
cer
3 ch
cox

Look-alike desk: cer vs cox

A purely visual mix-up. cer (\ˈʧeɾ\) and cox (\koks\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cer is recorded at frequency rank #46,052, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈʧeɾ\. cox is at rank #19,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \koks\.

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 65545, this pair ranks #71,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cer vs cox

Shared letters: c. Private to "cer": er. Private to "cox": ox.

"cer" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cer" and "cox" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈʧeɾ\ versus \koks\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cer" or "cox"?
"cox" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,493 in our French list, against #46,052 for "cer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cer" and "cox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cer vs ciro". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #71,847 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