coréenvscotéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,695
“coréen” frequency rank
#22,815
“cotée” frequency rank
29510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coréen cotée
Definition Relatif à la Corée, à ses habitants et à leur culture. Féminin singulier de coté.

Where the eye mixes coréen and cotée

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

6 ch
coréen
5 ch
cotée

Why the eye confuses coréen with cotée

A purely visual mix-up. coréen (\kɔ.ʁe.ɛ̃\) and cotée (\kɔ.te\) 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 29510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coréen is recorded at frequency rank #6,695, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.ʁe.ɛ̃\. cotée is at rank #22,815, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.te\.

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 29510, this pair ranks #316,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coréen vs cotée

Shared letters: ceoé. Private to "coréen": nr. Private to "cotée": t.

"coréen" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "cotée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coréen" and "cotée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.ʁe.ɛ̃\ versus \kɔ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coréen" vs "cotée" - which ranks higher?
"coréen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,695 in our French list, against #22,815 for "cotée". 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 "coréen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cotée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #316,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coréen" and "cotée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cotée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #316,212 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