citervsCteConfusable pair

Quick tell: citer is a verb, Cte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“citer” is a verb and “Cte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,596
“citer” frequency rank
#42,264
“Cte” frequency rank
45860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature citer Cte
Definition Assigner à comparaître devant une juridiction civile ou religieuse. Comte.

Where the eye mixes citer and Cte

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

5 ch
citer
3 ch
Cte

Visual trap between citer and Cte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: citer is \si.te\ while Cte is \kɔ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

citer is recorded at frequency rank #3,596, classified as averb, pronounced \si.te\. 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 45860, this pair ranks #199,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of citer vs Cte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "citer": ir. Private to "Cte": -.

"citer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Cte" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citercciter · cietr · citerr · citre · citter · ctier · icter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "citer" for "Cte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "citer" is a verb and "Cte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "citer" vs "Cte" - which ranks higher?
"citer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,596 in our French list, against #42,264 for "Cte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "citer" 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 #199,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "citer" 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 #199,477 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