cime vs Cte, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#32,745
“cime” frequency rank: #42,264
“Cte” frequency rank: 75009
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cime	Cte
Definition	Partie la plus haute d’une montagne, d’un rocher, d’un arbre, etc.	Comte.

Where the eye mixes cime and Cte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch

cime

3 ch

Cte

Why the eye confuses cime with Cte

A purely visual mix-up. cime (\sim\) and Cte (\kɔ̃t\) 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 75009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cime is recorded at frequency rank #32,745, classified as anoun, pronounced \sim\. Cte is at rank #42,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\.

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 75009, this pair ranks #35,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cime vs Cte

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cime": im. Private to "Cte": t.

"cime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "Cte" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cime ← ccime · ciem · cimme · cmie · icme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cime" for "Cte" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (\sim\ versus \kɔ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "cime" or "Cte"?

"cime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,745 in our French list, against #42,264 for "Cte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cime" and "Cte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "cime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "Cte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #35,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cime" and "Cte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs Cte". 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 #35,384 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.