Which to use
“cerne” and “cornée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,332
- “cerne” frequency rank
- #33,194
- “cornée” frequency rank
- 76526
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cerne | cornée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cercle sombre qui se forme autour de l’œil. | Partie transparente insérée dans la sclérotique de l’œil devant le cristallin. |
Where the eye mixes cerne and cornée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cerne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cornée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cerne with cornée
A purely visual mix-up. cerne (\sɛʁn\) and cornée (\kɔʁ.ne\) 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 76526, 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\. cornée is at rank #33,194, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ.ne\.
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 76526, this pair ranks #30,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cerne vs cornée
Shared letters: cenr. Private to "cerne": -. Private to "cornée": oé.
"cerne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cornée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cerne ← ccerne · cenre · ceren · cernne · cerrne · crene · ecrne
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cerne" and "cornée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cerne" or "cornée"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cerne" and "cornée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cerne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cornée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cerne" and "cornée" 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 #30,880 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.