cernevscornWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,332
“cerne” frequency rank
#16,103
“corn” frequency rank
59435
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cerne corn
Definition Cercle sombre qui se forme autour de l’œil. Corne.

Letter map: cerne vs corn

Shared letters muted; letters that set cerne and corn apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
cerne
4 ch
corn

Corpus notes: cerne and corn

cerne and corn are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59435, 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\. corn is at rank #16,103, tagged as anoun.

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 59435, this pair ranks #103,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cerne vs corn

Shared letters: cnr. Private to "cerne": e. Private to "corn": o.

"cerne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "corn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cerneccerne · cenre · ceren · cernne · cerrne · crene · ecrne
  • cornccorn · conr · cornn · corrn · cron · ocrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cerne" and "corn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "cerne" vs "corn" - which ranks higher?
"corn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,103 in our French list, against #43,332 for "cerne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "cerne" vs "corn" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cerne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cerne" and "corn" 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 #103,148 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