cordesvscordonWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,282
“cordes” frequency rank
#9,457
“cordon” frequency rank
15739
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cordes cordon
Definition Pluriel de corde. Petite corde, par exemple utilisée pour tirer un mécanisme, une sonnette, … → voir cordon de tirage et tirer le cordon

Where the eye mixes cordes and cordon

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

6 ch
cordes
6 ch
cordon

Visual trap between cordes and cordon

A purely visual mix-up. cordes (\kɔʁd\) and cordon (\kɔʁ.dɔ̃\) 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 15739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cordes is recorded at frequency rank #6,282, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁd\. cordon is at rank #9,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ.dɔ̃\.

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 15739, this pair ranks #391,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cordes vs cordon

Shared letters: cdor. Private to "cordes": es. Private to "cordon": n.

"cordes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cordon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cordesccordes · codres · corddes · cordess · cordse · coreds · corrdes · crodes
  • cordonccordon · codron · corddon · cordno · cordonn · corodn · corrdon · crodon

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cordes" and "cordon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁd\ versus \kɔʁ.dɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cordes" or "cordon"?
"cordes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,282 in our French list, against #9,457 for "cordon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cordes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cordon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cordes" and "cordon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coon vs cordon". 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 #391,033 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