CtevscureConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#42,264
“Cte” frequency rank
#7,048
“cure” frequency rank
49312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cte cure
Definition Comte. Soin, souci. — En ce sens, il est surtout usité dans l’expression : n’avoir cure.

Where the eye mixes Cte and cure

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

3 ch
Cte
4 ch
cure

Look-alike desk: Cte vs cure

A purely visual mix-up. Cte (\kɔ̃t\) 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 49312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cte is recorded at frequency rank #42,264, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\. 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 49312, this pair ranks #171,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Cte vs cure

Shared letters: ce. Private to "Cte": t. Private to "cure": ru.

"Cte" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "cure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cureccure · cuer · curre · ucre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Cte" for "cure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃t\ versus \kyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Cte" or "cure"?
"cure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,048 in our French list, against #42,264 for "Cte". 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 "Cte" 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 #171,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cte" and "cure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs Cte". 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 #171,723 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