Which to use
“cold” is an adjective and “côte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,139
- “cold” frequency rank
- #1,288
- “côte” frequency rank
- 24427
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cold | côte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Froid. | Chacun des os qui forment la cage thoracique. |
Where the eye mixes cold and côte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cold with côte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cold is \kəʊld\ while côte is \kot\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cold is recorded at frequency rank #23,139, classified as anadj, pronounced \kəʊld\. côte is at rank #1,288, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.
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 24427, this pair ranks #346,700 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cold vs côte
Shared letters: c. Private to "cold": dlo. Private to "côte": etô.
"cold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "côte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cold ← ccold · clod · codl · coldd · colld · ocld
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cold" and "côte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cold" or "côte" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "côte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #346,700 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cold" and "côte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cold vs conde". 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 #346,700 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.