CérèsvsCoréeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,738
“Cérès” frequency rank
#3,062
“Corée” frequency rank
42800
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cérès Corée
Definition Déesse romaine de l’agriculture, des moissons et de la fécondité ; fille de Saturne. Péninsule montagneuse d’Asie de l’Est, dont une des villes importantes est Séoul. Elle est bordée au nord par la Mandchourie, à l’est par la mer du Japon, et à l’ouest par la mer Jaune.

Where the eye mixes Cérès and Corée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Cérès
5 ch
Corée

Look-alike desk: Cérès vs Corée

A purely visual mix-up. Cérès (\se.ʁɛs\) and Corée (\kɔ.ʁe\) 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 42800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cérès is recorded at frequency rank #39,738, classified as aname, pronounced \se.ʁɛs\. Corée is at rank #3,062, tagged as aname, pronounced \kɔ.ʁe\.

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 42800, this pair ranks #222,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Cérès vs Corée

Shared letters: cré. Private to "Cérès": . Private to "Corée": eo.

"Cérès" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Corée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Cérès" for "Corée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\se.ʁɛs\ versus \kɔ.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "Cérès" or "Corée" show up more?
"Corée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,062 in our French list, against #39,738 for "Cérès". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Cérès" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Corée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #222,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cérès" and "Corée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs Cérès". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #222,856 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