Which to use
“cotte” and “culotte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,365
- “cotte” frequency rank
- #9,980
- “culotte” frequency rank
- 53345
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cotte | culotte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jupe. | Pantalon court. |
Where the eye mixes cotte and culotte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cotte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against culotte's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cotte with culotte
A purely visual mix-up. cotte (\kɔt\) and culotte (\ky.lɔt\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cotte is recorded at frequency rank #43,365, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔt\. culotte is at rank #9,980, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky.lɔt\.
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 53345, this pair ranks #141,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cotte vs culotte
Shared letters: ceot. Private to "cotte": -. Private to "culotte": lu.
"cotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "culotte" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cotte" for "culotte" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cotte" vs "culotte" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cotte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "culotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #141,354 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cotte" and "culotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cosette vs cotte". 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 #141,354 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.