Which to use
“corte” and “côte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,386
- “corte” frequency rank
- #1,288
- “côte” frequency rank
- 28674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | corte | côte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cour. | Chacun des os qui forment la cage thoracique. |
Where the eye mixes corte and côte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses corte with côte
A purely visual mix-up. corte (\ˈkɔr.te\) and côte (\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 28674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
corte is recorded at frequency rank #27,386, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔr.te\. côte is at rank #1,288, 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 28674, this pair ranks #321,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of corte vs côte
Shared letters: cet. Private to "corte": or. Private to "côte": ô.
"corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "côte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- corte ← ccorte · coret · corrte · cotre · ocrte
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "corte" for "côte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "corte" or "côte"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "corte" and "côte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "corte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "côte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "corte" and "côte" 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 #321,375 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.