cornevscrâneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,941
“corne” frequency rank
#4,659
“crâne” frequency rank
17600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corne crâne
Definition Excroissance dure qui pousse sur le front des ruminants, sur le nez du rhinocéros. Assemblage des os de la tête, partie du squelette destinée à protéger l’encéphale.

Where the eye mixes corne and crâne

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

5 ch
corne
5 ch
crâne

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. corne (\kɔʁn\) and crâne (\kʁɑn\) 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 17600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

corne is recorded at frequency rank #12,941, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁn\. crâne is at rank #4,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɑn\.

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 17600, this pair ranks #382,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of corne vs crâne

Shared letters: cenr. Private to "corne": o. Private to "crâne": â.

"corne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "crâne" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corneccorne · conre · coren · cornne · corrne · crone · ocrne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "corne" and "crâne" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁn\ versus \kʁɑn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "corne" or "crâne"?
"crâne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,659 in our French list, against #12,941 for "corne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "corne" and "crâne". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "corne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crâne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #382,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "corne" and "crâne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs corne". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list