cinevscitesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“cine” and “cites” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,614
“cine” frequency rank
#12,742
“cites” frequency rank
53356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cine cites
Definition cinefilm plural of cite

Where the eye mixes cine and cites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cine runs 4 letters (CVCV) against cites's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cine
5 ch
cites

Look-alike desk: cine vs cites

A purely visual mix-up. cine (/ˈsɪni/) and cites (/saɪts/) 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 53356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cine is recorded at frequency rank #40,614, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪni/. cites is at rank #12,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced /saɪts/.

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 53356, this pair ranks #149,672 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cine vs cites

Shared letters: cei. Private to "cine": n. Private to "cites": st.

"cine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cine ← ccine · cien · cinne · cnie
  • cites ← ccites · ciets · citess · citse · cittes · cties · ictes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cine" for "cites" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsɪni/ versus /saɪts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cine" vs "cites" - which ranks higher?
"cites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,742 in our English list, against #40,614 for "cine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,672 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cine" and "cites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cine vs cuny". 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 #149,672 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list