cocottevsculotteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,392
“cocotte” frequency rank
#9,980
“culotte” frequency rank
30372
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cocotte culotte
Definition Terme par lequel les enfants désignent les poules. Pantalon court.

Where the eye mixes cocotte and culotte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
cocotte
7 ch
culotte

Visual trap between cocotte and culotte

A purely visual mix-up. cocotte (\kɔ.kɔt\) and culotte (\ky.lɔt\) 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 30372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cocotte is recorded at frequency rank #20,392, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.kɔt\. culotte is at rank #9,980, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky.lɔt\.

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 30372, this pair ranks #310,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cocotte vs culotte

Shared letters: ceot. Private to "cocotte": -. Private to "culotte": lu.

"cocotte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "culotte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cocotteccocotte · ccootte · coccotte · cocote · cocotet · coctote · cooctte · occotte
  • culottecculotte · cluotte · cullotte · culote · culotet · cultote · cuoltte · uclotte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cocotte" and "culotte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.kɔt\ versus \ky.lɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cocotte" vs "culotte" - which ranks higher?
"culotte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,980 in our French list, against #20,392 for "cocotte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cocotte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "culotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cocotte" and "culotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocotte vs Cosette". 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 #310,769 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