connusvscornuTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,914
“connus” frequency rank
#34,963
“cornu” frequency rank
37877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature connus cornu
Definition Masculin pluriel de connu. Qui a des cornes.

Where the eye mixes connus and cornu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
connus
5 ch
cornu

Visual trap between connus and cornu

A purely visual mix-up. connus (\kɔ.ny\) and cornu (\kɔʁ.ny\) 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 37877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

connus is recorded at frequency rank #2,914, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.ny\. cornu is at rank #34,963, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔʁ.ny\.

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 37877, this pair ranks #259,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of connus vs cornu

Shared letters: cnou. Private to "connus": s. Private to "cornu": r.

"connus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cornu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • connuscconnus · cnonus · connsu · connuss · conuns · conus · ocnnus
  • cornuccornu · conru · cornnu · corrnu · corun · cronu · ocrnu

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "connus" and "cornu" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.ny\ versus \kɔʁ.ny\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "connus" or "cornu" show up more?
"connus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,914 in our French list, against #34,963 for "cornu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "connus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cornu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #259,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "connus" and "cornu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coon vs cornu". 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 #259,338 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