cortevscourgeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#27,386
“corte” frequency rank
#30,546
“courge” frequency rank
57932
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corte courge
Definition Cour. Genre de plantes de la famille des Cucurbitacées (Cucurbitaceae).

Where the eye mixes corte and courge

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

5 ch
corte
6 ch
courge

Look-alike desk: corte vs courge

A purely visual mix-up. corte (\ˈkɔr.te\) and courge (\kuʁʒ\) 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 57932, 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\. courge is at rank #30,546, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʁʒ\.

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 57932, this pair ranks #112,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of corte vs courge

Shared letters: ceor. Private to "corte": t. Private to "courge": gu.

"corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "courge" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corteccorte · coret · corrte · cotre · ocrte
  • courgeccourge · coruge · cougre · coureg · courgge · courrge · cuorge · ocurge

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "corte" and "courge" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈkɔr.te\ versus \kuʁʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "corte" vs "courge" - which ranks higher?
"corte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,386 in our French list, against #30,546 for "courge". 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 "corte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "corte" and "courge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courge vs curage". 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 #112,061 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