Which to use
“cinque” and “cirque” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,253
- “cinque” frequency rank
- #30,366
- “cirque” frequency rank
- 79619
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cinque | cirque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A card, die, or domino with five spots or pips. | A Roman circus. |
Where the eye mixes cinque and cirque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cinque vs cirque
A purely visual mix-up. cinque (/sɪŋk/) and cirque (/sɜːk/) 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 - n in “cinque” becomes r in “cirque”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cinque is recorded at frequency rank #49,253, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɪŋk/. cirque is at rank #30,366, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɜːk/.
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 79619, this pair ranks #21,663 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cinque vs cirque
Shared letters: ceiqu. Private to "cinque": n. Private to "cirque": r.
"cinque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "cirque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cinque" and "cirque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cinque" or "cirque"?
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 "cinque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cirque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,663 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cinque" and "cirque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cine vs cinque". 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 #21,663 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.