Which to use
“cerise” and “cerne” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,360
- “cerise” frequency rank
- #43,332
- “cerne” frequency rank
- 54692
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cerise | cerne |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fruit comestible du cerisier charnu, petit et sphérique et à la peau généralement rouge, qui est une drupe. | Cercle sombre qui se forme autour de l’œil. |
Where the eye mixes cerise and cerne
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cerise runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cerne's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cerise and cerne
A purely visual mix-up. cerise (\sə.ʁiz\) and cerne (\sɛʁn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cerise is recorded at frequency rank #11,360, classified as anoun, pronounced \sə.ʁiz\. cerne is at rank #43,332, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁn\.
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 54692, this pair ranks #132,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cerise vs cerne
Shared letters: cer. Private to "cerise": is. Private to "cerne": n.
"cerise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "cerne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cerise" and "cerne" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cerise" or "cerne"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cerise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cerne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cerise" and "cerne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerne vs CNE". 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 #132,310 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.