cuirevscuirsTell them apart

Quick tell: cuire is a verb, cuirs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cuire” is a verb and “cuirs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,947
“cuire” frequency rank
#36,344
“cuirs” frequency rank
44291
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cuire cuirs
Definition Préparer les aliments par le moyen du feu, de la chaleur, pour les rendre propres à être mangés. Devenir propre à être mangé ou propre à tel ou tel usage par le moyen du feu, de la chaleur. Pluriel de cuir.

Same sound, different letters: cuire vs cuirs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. cuire (CVVCV) and cuirs (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
cuire
5 ch
cuirs

Ear matches; page differs - cuire and cuirs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: cuire and cuirs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɥiʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “cuire” becomes s in “cuirs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cuire is recorded at frequency rank #7,947, classified as averb, pronounced \kɥiʁ\. cuirs is at rank #36,344, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɥiʁ\.

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 44291, this pair ranks #211,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cuire vs cuirs

Shared letters: ciru. Private to "cuire": e. Private to "cuirs": s.

"cuire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "cuirs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cuireccuire · ciure · cuier · cuirre · ucire
  • cuirsccuirs · ciurs · cuirrs · cuirss · cuisr · curis · ucirs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cuire" and "cuirs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cuire" is a verb and "cuirs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cuire" vs "cuirs" - which ranks higher?
"cuire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,947 in our French list, against #36,344 for "cuirs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"cuire" and "cuirs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cuire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cuirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cuire" and "cuirs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cuirs". 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 #211,580 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