comitévscorteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,088
“comité” frequency rank
#27,386
“corte” frequency rank
28474
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comité corte
Definition Réunion de personnes commises par un groupement (assemblée, société, syndicat, etc.) pour l’examen et la préparation de certaines affaires ou pour assurer la marche de toutes les affaires concernant ce groupement. Cour.

Where the eye mixes comité and corte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. comité runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against corte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
comité
5 ch
corte

Visual trap between comité and corte

A purely visual mix-up. comité (\kɔ.mi.te\) and corte (\ˈkɔr.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28474, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comité is recorded at frequency rank #1,088, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mi.te\. corte is at rank #27,386, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔr.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 28474, this pair ranks #322,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comité vs corte

Shared letters: cot. Private to "comité": imé. Private to "corte": er.

"comité" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corte ← ccorte · coret · corrte · cotre · ocrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comité" for "corte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.mi.te\ versus \ˈkɔr.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "comité" vs "corte" - which ranks higher?
"comité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,088 in our French list, against #27,386 for "corte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comité" and "corte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs corte". 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 #322,547 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