Which to use
“commerce” and “commère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #977
- “commerce” frequency rank
- #46,075
- “commère” frequency rank
- 47052
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commerce | commère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Activité qui consiste à acheter et vendre des marchandises, des denrées, des valeurs, des services, etc., en vue de réaliser un profit. | Personne qui est la marraine d’un même enfant, du point de vue du parrain, du père et de mère de l’enfant. |
Where the eye mixes commerce and commère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses commerce with commère
A purely visual mix-up. commerce (\kɔ.mɛʁs\) and commère (\kɔ.mɛʁ\) 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 47052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
commerce is recorded at frequency rank #977, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɛʁs\. commère is at rank #46,075, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɛʁ\.
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 47052, this pair ranks #190,029 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of commerce vs commère
Shared letters: cemor. Private to "commerce": -. Private to "commère": è.
"commerce" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "commère" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- commerce ← ccommerce · cmomerce · comemrce · comerce · commecre · commercce · commerec · commerrce
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "commerce" and "commère" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "commerce" vs "commère" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "commerce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #190,029 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commerce" and "commère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commercer vs commère". 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 #190,029 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.