Which to use
“cercle” and “cerise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,463
- “cercle” frequency rank
- #11,360
- “cerise” frequency rank
- 13823
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cercle | cerise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dans un plan euclidien, lieu de tous les points équidistants d’un point donné appelé le centre du cercle. La distance au centre s’appelle le rayon. | Fruit comestible du cerisier charnu, petit et sphérique et à la peau généralement rouge, qui est une drupe. |
Where the eye mixes cercle and cerise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cercle (CVCCCV) and cerise (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses cercle with cerise
A purely visual mix-up. cercle (\sɛʁkl\) and cerise (\sə.ʁiz\) 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 13823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cercle is recorded at frequency rank #2,463, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁkl\. cerise is at rank #11,360, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sə.ʁiz\.
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 13823, this pair ranks #399,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cercle vs cerise
Shared letters: cer. Private to "cercle": l. Private to "cerise": is.
"cercle" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "cerise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cercle" and "cerise" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cercle" or "cerise"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cercle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cerise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cercle" and "cerise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerise vs cese". 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 #399,411 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.