CSSvsculsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,705
“CSS” frequency rank
#12,545
“culs” frequency rank
31250
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature CSS culs
Definition Séquence d’instructions de rendu visuel, auditif ou tactile d’une ressource HTML ou XML. Pluriel de cul.

Where the eye mixes CSS and culs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
CSS
4 ch
culs

Visual trap between CSS and culs

A purely visual mix-up. CSS (\se ɛ.s‿ɛs\) and culs (\ky\) 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 31250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CSS is recorded at frequency rank #18,705, classified as anoun, pronounced \se ɛ.s‿ɛs\. culs is at rank #12,545, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky\.

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 31250, this pair ranks #304,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of CSS vs culs

Shared letters: cs. Private to "CSS": -. Private to "culs": lu.

"CSS" · 3 letters · shape CCC  ·  "culs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • culscculs · clus · culls · culss · cusl · ucls

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "CSS" and "culs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\se ɛ.s‿ɛs\ versus \ky\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "CSS" or "culs"?
"culs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,545 in our French list, against #18,705 for "CSS". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "CSS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "culs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #304,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "CSS" and "culs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CSS". 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 #304,964 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