cylindrevscylindréeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,441
“cylindre” frequency rank
#32,367
“cylindrée” frequency rank
46808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cylindre cylindrée
Definition Surface réglée dont les génératrices sont des droites parallèles. Volume intérieur d'un cylindre, correspondant à la course du piston dans une pompe ou dans un moteur à explosion.

Where the eye mixes cylindre and cylindrée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. cylindre runs 8 letters (CVCVCCCV) against cylindrée's 9 (CVCVCCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
cylindre
9 ch
cylindrée

Why the eye confuses cylindre with cylindrée

A purely visual mix-up. cylindre (\si.lɛ̃dʁ\) and cylindrée (\si.lɛ̃.dʁe\) 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 46808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cylindre is recorded at frequency rank #14,441, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.lɛ̃dʁ\. cylindrée is at rank #32,367, tagged as anoun, pronounced \si.lɛ̃.dʁe\.

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 46808, this pair ranks #191,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cylindre vs cylindrée

Shared letters: cdeilnry. Private to "cylindre": -. Private to "cylindrée": é.

"cylindre" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV  ·  "cylindrée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cylindre ← ccylindre · clyindre · cyilndre · cylidnre · cylinddre · cylinder · cylindrre · cylinndre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cylindre" for "cylindrée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\si.lɛ̃dʁ\ versus \si.lɛ̃.dʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cylindre" or "cylindrée"?
"cylindre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,441 in our French list, against #32,367 for "cylindrée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cylindre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cylindrée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cylindre" and "cylindrée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calandre vs cylindre". 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 #191,912 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