Which to use
“côte” and “crête” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,288
- “côte” frequency rank
- #11,944
- “crête” frequency rank
- 13232
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | côte | crête |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacun des os qui forment la cage thoracique. | Excroissance charnue que les coqs et quelques autres gallinacés ont sur leur tête. |
Where the eye mixes côte and crête
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. côte runs 4 letters (CVCV) against crête's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between côte and crête
A purely visual mix-up. côte (\kot\) and crête (\kʁɛt\) 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 13232, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
côte is recorded at frequency rank #1,288, classified as anoun, pronounced \kot\. crête is at rank #11,944, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛt\.
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 13232, this pair ranks #401,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of côte vs crête
Shared letters: cet. Private to "côte": ô. Private to "crête": rê.
"côte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "crête" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "côte" for "crête" ever safe?
Frequency check: "côte" vs "crête" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "côte" and "crête" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "côte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crête" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "côte" and "crête" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cese vs crête". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #401,869 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.