Which to use
“cumulés” is a verb and “cumulus” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,910
- “cumulés” frequency rank
- #42,266
- “cumulus” frequency rank
- 74176
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cumulés | cumulus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin pluriel de cumuler. | Amas de nuages dont la partie supérieure est arrondie et présente des reflets blancs, tandis que la partie inférieure est sombre. |
Where the eye mixes cumulés and cumulus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cumulés and cumulus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: cumulés vs cumulus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cumulés is \ky.my.le\ while cumulus is \ky.my.lys\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - é in “cumulés” becomes u in “cumulus”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cumulés is recorded at frequency rank #31,910, classified as averb, pronounced \ky.my.le\. cumulus is at rank #42,266, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky.my.lys\.
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 74176, this pair ranks #37,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cumulés vs cumulus
Shared letters: clmsu. Private to "cumulés": é. Private to "cumulus": -.
"cumulés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "cumulus" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cumulus ← ccumulus · cmuulus · cumluus · cummulus · cumullus · cumulsu · cumuluss · cumuuls
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cumulés" for "cumulus" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cumulés" or "cumulus" show up more?
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 "cumulés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cumulus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cumulés" and "cumulus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cumulées vs cumulus". 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 #37,985 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.