CGIvscoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,892
“CGI” frequency rank
#1,856
“co” frequency rank
26748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature CGI co
Definition Protocole de communication utilisé par des serveurs HTTP, et qui permet l’exécution de pages web en en retournant les contenus générés, comme s’il s’agissait de ceux de fichiers. Connexion.

Where the eye mixes CGI and co

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
CGI
2 ch
co

Look-alike desk: CGI vs co

A purely visual mix-up. CGI (\se.ʒe.i\) and co (\ko\) 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 26748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CGI is recorded at frequency rank #24,892, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.ʒe.i\. co is at rank #1,856, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ko\.

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 26748, this pair ranks #333,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of CGI vs co

Shared letters: c. Private to "CGI": gi. Private to "co": o.

"CGI" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "co" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "CGI" for "co" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\se.ʒe.i\ versus \ko\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "CGI" or "co" show up more?
"co" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,856 in our French list, against #24,892 for "CGI". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "CGI" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "co" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #333,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "CGI" and "co" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CGI". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #333,082 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