curesvscuvesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,120
“cures” frequency rank
#21,588
“cuves” frequency rank
51708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cures cuves
Definition Pluriel de cure. Pluriel de cuve.

Where the eye mixes cures and cuves

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cures
5 ch
cuves

Visual trap between cures and cuves

A purely visual mix-up. cures (\kyʁ\) and cuves (\kyv\) 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 a single letter - r in “cures” becomes v in “cuves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cures is recorded at frequency rank #30,120, classified as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ\. cuves is at rank #21,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyv\.

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 51708, this pair ranks #153,030 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cures vs cuves

Shared letters: cesu. Private to "cures": r. Private to "cuves": v.

"cures" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cuves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • curesccures · cuers · curess · curres · curse · ucres
  • cuvesccuves · cuevs · cuvess · cuvse · cuvves · cvues · ucves

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cures" and "cuves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kyʁ\ versus \kyv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cures" or "cuves"?
"cuves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,588 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cures" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cuves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,030 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cures" and "cuves" 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 #153,030 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