coûtantvscutanéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,752
“coûtant” frequency rank
#33,202
“cutané” frequency rank
70954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coûtant cutané
Definition Qui coûte. Relatif à la peau.

Where the eye mixes coûtant and cutané

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

7 ch
coûtant
6 ch
cutané

Why the eye confuses coûtant with cutané

A purely visual mix-up. coûtant (\ku.tɑ̃\) and cutané (\ky.ta.ne\) 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 70954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coûtant is recorded at frequency rank #37,752, classified as anadj, pronounced \ku.tɑ̃\. cutané is at rank #33,202, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ky.ta.ne\.

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 70954, this pair ranks #49,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coûtant vs cutané

Shared letters: acnt. Private to "coûtant": . Private to "cutané": .

"coûtant" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "cutané" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coûtant" and "cutané" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ku.tɑ̃\ versus \ky.ta.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "coûtant" or "cutané" show up more?
"cutané" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,202 in our French list, against #37,752 for "coûtant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "coûtant" and "cutané" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coûtant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cutané" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coûtant" and "cutané" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "count vs coûtant". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,363 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