coutumesvscoutureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,849
“coutumes” frequency rank
#8,088
“couture” frequency rank
18937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coutumes couture
Definition Pluriel de coutume. Action, art de coudre.

Where the eye mixes coutumes and couture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. coutumes runs 8 letters (CVVCVCVC) against couture's 7 (CVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
coutumes
7 ch
couture

Look-alike desk: coutumes vs couture

A purely visual mix-up. coutumes (\ku.tym\) and couture (\ku.tyʁ\) 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 18937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coutumes is recorded at frequency rank #10,849, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.tym\. couture is at rank #8,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.tyʁ\.

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 18937, this pair ranks #375,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coutumes vs couture

Shared letters: ceotu. Private to "coutumes": ms. Private to "couture": r.

"coutumes" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC  ·  "couture" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coutumesccoutumes · cotuumes · coutmues · couttumes · coutuems · coutumess · coutummes · coutumse
  • coutureccouture · cotuure · coutrue · coutture · coutuer · couturre · couutre · cuoture

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coutumes" and "couture" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ku.tym\ versus \ku.tyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coutumes" vs "couture" - which ranks higher?
"couture" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,088 in our French list, against #10,849 for "coutumes". 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 "coutumes" and "couture" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coutumes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "couture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coutumes" and "couture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coutumes vs coutumiers". 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 #375,846 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