chutevscôteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,904
“chute” frequency rank
#1,288
“côte” frequency rank
3192
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chute côte
Definition Fait de choir, de tomber ou de se détacher d’un tout ; le mouvement ou l’action correspondante. Chacun des os qui forment la cage thoracique.

Where the eye mixes chute and côte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chute
4 ch
côte

Look-alike desk: chute vs côte

A purely visual mix-up. chute (\ʃyt\) and côte (\kot\) 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 3192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chute is recorded at frequency rank #1,904, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃyt\. côte is at rank #1,288, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.

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 3192, this pair ranks #434,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chute vs côte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "chute": hu. Private to "côte": ô.

"chute" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "côte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chutecchute · chhute · chtue · chuet · chutte · cuhte · hcute

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chute" and "côte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃyt\ versus \kot\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chute" vs "côte" - which ranks higher?
"côte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,288 in our French list, against #1,904 for "chute". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "côte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chute" and "côte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs côte". 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 #434,574 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