cultesvscuresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,480
“cultes” frequency rank
#30,120
“cures” frequency rank
40600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cultes cures
Definition Pluriel de culte. Pluriel de cure.

Where the eye mixes cultes and cures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cultes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against cures's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cultes
5 ch
cures

Why the eye confuses cultes with cures

A purely visual mix-up. cultes (\kylt\) and cures (\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 40600, 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\. cures is at rank #30,120, 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 40600, this pair ranks #239,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cultes vs cures

Shared letters: cesu. Private to "cultes": lt. Private to "cures": r.

"cultes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cures" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cultesccultes · clutes · culets · culltes · cultess · cultse · culttes · cutles
  • curesccures · cuers · curess · curres · curse · ucres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cultes" and "cures" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kylt\ versus \kyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cultes" vs "cures" - which ranks higher?
"cultes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,480 in our French list, against #30,120 for "cures". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cultes" and "cures" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cultes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #239,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cultes" and "cures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs cures". 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 #239,325 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