Which to use
“costume” and “coutumes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,658
- “costume” frequency rank
- #10,849
- “coutumes” frequency rank
- 15507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | costume | coutumes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Manière spécifique de se vêtir avec une connotation historique ou régionale. | Pluriel de coutume. |
Where the eye mixes costume and coutumes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. costume runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against coutumes's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: costume vs coutumes
A purely visual mix-up. costume (\kɔs.tym\) and coutumes (\ku.tym\) 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 15507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
costume is recorded at frequency rank #4,658, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔs.tym\. coutumes is at rank #10,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.tym\.
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 15507, this pair ranks #392,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of costume vs coutumes
Shared letters: cemostu. Private to "costume": -. Private to "coutumes": -.
"costume" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "coutumes" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "costume" and "coutumes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "costume" or "coutumes" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "costume" and "coutumes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "costume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coutumes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #392,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "costume" and "coutumes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coutumes vs coutumiers". 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 #392,039 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.