cornesvscorteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,556
“cornes” frequency rank
#27,386
“corte” frequency rank
40942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cornes corte
Definition Pluriel de corne. Cour.

Where the eye mixes cornes and corte

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

6 ch
cornes
5 ch
corte

Why the eye confuses cornes with corte

A purely visual mix-up. cornes (\kɔʁn\) and corte (\ˈkɔr.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 40942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cornes is recorded at frequency rank #13,556, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁn\. corte is at rank #27,386, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔr.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 40942, this pair ranks #236,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cornes vs corte

Shared letters: ceor. Private to "cornes": ns. Private to "corte": t.

"cornes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cornesccornes · conres · corens · corness · cornnes · cornse · corrnes · crones
  • corteccorte · coret · corrte · cotre · ocrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cornes" and "corte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁn\ versus \ˈkɔr.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cornes" or "corte"?
"cornes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,556 in our French list, against #27,386 for "corte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cornes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cornes" and "corte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs corte". 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 #236,786 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