Which to use
“citée” is a verb and “cotée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,448
- “citée” frequency rank
- #22,815
- “cotée” frequency rank
- 32263
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | citée | cotée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe citer. | Féminin singulier de coté. |
Where the eye mixes citée and cotée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. citée and cotée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between citée and cotée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: citée is \si.te\ while cotée is \kɔ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “citée” becomes o in “cotée”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
citée is recorded at frequency rank #9,448, classified as averb, pronounced \si.te\. cotée is at rank #22,815, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.te\.
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 32263, this pair ranks #298,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of citée vs cotée
Shared letters: ceté. Private to "citée": i. Private to "cotée": o.
"citée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "cotée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "citée" and "cotée" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "citée" vs "cotée" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "citée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cotée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #298,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "citée" and "cotée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cotée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #298,404 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.