Which to use
“cerbère” is a noun and “cernée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,223
- “cerbère” frequency rank
- #44,362
- “cernée” frequency rank
- 86585
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cerbère | cernée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gardien sévère, par allusion au chien à trois têtes qui, selon la fable, gardait la porte des Enfers. | Féminin singulier de cerné. |
Where the eye mixes cerbère and cernée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cerbère runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against cernée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cerbère and cernée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cerbère is \sɛʁ.bɛʁ\ while cernée is \sɛʁ.ne\. 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 86585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cerbère is recorded at frequency rank #42,223, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁ.bɛʁ\. cernée is at rank #44,362, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛʁ.ne\.
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 86585, this pair ranks #9,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cerbère vs cernée
Shared letters: cer. Private to "cerbère": bè. Private to "cernée": né.
"cerbère" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "cernée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cerbère" and "cernée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cerbère" or "cernée"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cerbère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cernée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cerbère" and "cernée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carne vs cernée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #9,499 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.