Which to use
“cordes” and “côtes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,282
- “cordes” frequency rank
- #3,395
- “côtes” frequency rank
- 9677
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cordes | côtes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de corde. | Pluriel de côte. |
Where the eye mixes cordes and côtes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cordes with côtes
A purely visual mix-up. cordes (\kɔʁd\) and côtes (\kot\) 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 9677, 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\. côtes is at rank #3,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.
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 9677, this pair ranks #415,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cordes vs côtes
Shared letters: ces. Private to "cordes": dor. Private to "côtes": tô.
"cordes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "côtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cordes ← ccordes · codres · corddes · cordess · cordse · coreds · corrdes · crodes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cordes" and "côtes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cordes" or "côtes"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cordes" and "côtes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cordes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "côtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #415,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cordes" and "côtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cordes vs courges". 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 #415,821 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.