Which to use
“coule” and “cure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,283
- “coule” frequency rank
- #7,048
- “cure” frequency rank
- 13331
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coule | cure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Manteau à larges manches porté par les religieux et religieuses. Seul celui des moines a une capuche. | Soin, souci. — En ce sens, il est surtout usité dans l’expression : n’avoir cure. |
Where the eye mixes coule and cure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: coule vs cure
A purely visual mix-up. coule (\kul\) and cure (\kyʁ\) 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 13331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coule is recorded at frequency rank #6,283, classified as anoun, pronounced \kul\. cure is at rank #7,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ\.
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 13331, this pair ranks #401,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of coule vs cure
Shared letters: ceu. Private to "coule": lo. Private to "cure": r.
"coule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "cure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coule" and "cure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "coule" or "cure" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "coule" and "cure" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "coule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coule" and "cure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "curage vs cure". 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 #401,452 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.