Which to use
“cuve” and “cuves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,006
- “cuve” frequency rank
- #21,588
- “cuves” frequency rank
- 35594
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cuve | cuves |
|---|---|---|
| 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 cuve. |
Same sound, different letters: cuve vs cuves
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - cuve and cuves
This is the hard kind. cuve and cuves are pronounced identically (\kyv\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “cuve” sits inside “cuves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35594, 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\. 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 35594, this pair ranks #275,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cuve vs cuves
Shared letters: ceuv. Private to "cuve": -. Private to "cuves": s.
"cuve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cuves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cuve" for "cuves" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cuve" or "cuves" show up more?
Useful next steps
"cuve" and "cuves" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "cuve" 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 #275,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cuve" and "cuves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs cuves". 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 #275,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.