CMAvsculWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,763
“CMA” frequency rank
#999
“cul” frequency rank
37762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature CMA cul
Definition Organisme consulaire chargé de développer l’activité économique dans le domaine de l'artisanat. Derrière d’un animal, d’un humain, ses fesses, son postérieur.

Where the eye mixes CMA and cul

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

3 ch
CMA
3 ch
cul

Visual trap between CMA and cul

A purely visual mix-up. CMA (\se.ɛm.a\) and cul (\ky\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CMA is recorded at frequency rank #36,763, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛm.a\. cul is at rank #999, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky\.

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 37762, this pair ranks #260,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of CMA vs cul

Shared letters: c. Private to "CMA": am. Private to "cul": lu.

"CMA" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "cul" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "CMA" for "cul" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\se.ɛm.a\ versus \ky\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "CMA" or "cul" show up more?
"cul" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #999 in our French list, against #36,763 for "CMA". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "CMA" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "CMA" and "cul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CMA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #260,102 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