coudesvscubesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,586
“coudes” frequency rank
#12,350
“cubes” frequency rank
28936
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coudes cubes
Definition Pluriel de coude. Pluriel de cube.

Where the eye mixes coudes and cubes

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

6 ch
coudes
5 ch
cubes

Look-alike desk: coudes vs cubes

A purely visual mix-up. coudes (\kud\) and cubes (\kyb\) 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 28936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coudes is recorded at frequency rank #16,586, classified as anoun, pronounced \kud\. cubes is at rank #12,350, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyb\.

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 28936, this pair ranks #319,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coudes vs cubes

Shared letters: cesu. Private to "coudes": do. Private to "cubes": b.

"coudes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "cubes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coudesccoudes · codues · couddes · coudess · coudse · coueds · cuodes · ocudes
  • cubescbues · ccubes · cubbes · cubess · cubse · cuebs · ucbes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coudes" for "cubes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kud\ versus \kyb\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coudes" vs "cubes" - which ranks higher?
"cubes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,350 in our French list, against #16,586 for "coudes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coudes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cubes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #319,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coudes" and "cubes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coudes vs courges". 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 #319,726 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