Which to use
“cuve” and “cuvées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,006
- “cuve” frequency rank
- #47,823
- “cuvées” frequency rank
- 61829
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cuve | cuvées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grand récipient de bois, de métal ou de maçonnerie dont on se sert ordinairement pour fouler la vendange ou pour y laisser fermenter le vin nouveau avec la grappe, pour faire de la bière et pour divers autres usages. | Pluriel de cuvée. |
Where the eye mixes cuve and cuvées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cuve runs 4 letters (CVCV) against cuvées's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cuve and cuvées
A purely visual mix-up. cuve (\kyv\) and cuvées (\ky.ve\) 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 61829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cuve is recorded at frequency rank #14,006, classified as anoun, pronounced \kyv\. cuvées is at rank #47,823, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky.ve\.
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 61829, this pair ranks #90,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cuve vs cuvées
Shared letters: ceuv. Private to "cuve": -. Private to "cuvées": sé.
"cuve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cuvées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cuve ← ccuve · cuev · cuvve · cvue · ucve
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cuve" and "cuvées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cuve" or "cuvées" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cuve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cuvées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #90,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cuve" and "cuvées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "covers 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 #90,195 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.