cultesvsculturesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,480
“cultes” frequency rank
#3,246
“cultures” frequency rank
13726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cultes cultures
Definition Pluriel de culte. Pluriel de culture.

Where the eye mixes cultes and cultures

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

6 ch
cultes
8 ch
cultures

Look-alike desk: cultes vs cultures

A purely visual mix-up. cultes (\kylt\) and cultures (\kyl.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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cultes is recorded at frequency rank #10,480, classified as anoun, pronounced \kylt\. cultures is at rank #3,246, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyl.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 13726, this pair ranks #399,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cultes vs cultures

Shared letters: celstu. Private to "cultes": -. Private to "cultures": r.

"cultes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cultures" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cultesccultes · clutes · culets · culltes · cultess · cultse · culttes · cutles
  • culturesccultures · clutures · culltures · cultrues · culttures · cultuers · culturess · culturres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cultes" and "cultures" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kylt\ versus \kyl.tyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cultes" vs "cultures" - which ranks higher?
"cultures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,246 in our French list, against #10,480 for "cultes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cultes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cultures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #399,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cultes" and "cultures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cultes vs cuvées". 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 #399,795 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