Which to use
“cerne” and “cernes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,332
- “cerne” frequency rank
- #29,275
- “cernes” frequency rank
- 72607
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cerne | cernes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cercle sombre qui se forme autour de l’œil. | Pluriel de cerne. |
Same sound, different letters: cerne vs cernes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. cerne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cernes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - cerne and cernes
This is the hard kind. cerne and cernes are pronounced identically (\sɛʁn\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “cerne” sits inside “cernes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cerne is recorded at frequency rank #43,332, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁn\. cernes is at rank #29,275, 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 72607, this pair ranks #43,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cerne vs cernes
Shared letters: cenr. Private to "cerne": -. Private to "cernes": s.
"cerne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cernes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cerne" and "cernes" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "cerne" or "cernes" show up more?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "cerne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cernes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cerne" and "cernes" 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 #43,404 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.