cuirevscuraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,947
“cuire” frequency rank
#46,093
“cura” frequency rank
54040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cuire cura
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. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de curer.

Where the eye mixes cuire and cura

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cuire
4 ch
cura

Look-alike desk: cuire vs cura

A purely visual mix-up. cuire (\kɥiʁ\) and cura (\ky.ʁa\) 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 54040, 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\. cura is at rank #46,093, tagged as averb, pronounced \ky.ʁa\.

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 54040, this pair ranks #136,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cuire vs cura

Shared letters: cru. Private to "cuire": ei. Private to "cura": a.

"cuire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "cura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cuireccuire · ciure · cuier · cuirre · ucire
  • curaccura · cuar · curra · ucra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cuire" for "cura" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɥiʁ\ versus \ky.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cuire" vs "cura" - which ranks higher?
"cuire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,947 in our French list, against #46,093 for "cura". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cuire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cuire" and "cura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cura vs curage". 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 #136,722 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