confvscorkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,692
“conf” frequency rank
#46,088
“cork” frequency rank
64780
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conf cork
Definition Conférence. Saut composé d'une rotation faisant passer la planche par dessus la tête.

Where the eye mixes conf and cork

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
conf
4 ch
cork

Look-alike desk: conf vs cork

A purely visual mix-up. conf (\kɔ̃f\) and cork (\kɔʁk\) 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 64780, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conf is recorded at frequency rank #18,692, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃f\. cork is at rank #46,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁk\.

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 64780, this pair ranks #75,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of conf vs cork

Shared letters: co. Private to "conf": fn. Private to "cork": kr.

"conf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • confcconf · cnof · cofn · conff · connf · ocnf
  • corkccork · cokr · corkk · corrk · crok · ocrk

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "conf" for "cork" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃f\ versus \kɔʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "conf" vs "cork" - which ranks higher?
"conf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,692 in our French list, against #46,088 for "cork". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "conf" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cork" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conf" and "cork" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cork". 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 #75,373 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