cinquevscliqueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,253
“cinque” frequency rank
#23,784
“clique” frequency rank
73037
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cinque clique
Definition A card, die, or domino with five spots or pips. A small, exclusive group of individuals, usually according to lifestyle or social status; a cabal.

Where the eye mixes cinque and clique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cinque
6 ch
clique

Look-alike desk: cinque vs clique

A purely visual mix-up. cinque (/sɪŋk/) and clique (/kliːk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73037, 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/. clique is at rank #23,784, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kliːk/.

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 73037, this pair ranks #40,946 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cinque vs clique

Shared letters: ceiqu. Private to "cinque": n. Private to "clique": l.

"cinque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "clique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cinqueccinque · cinnque · cinqeu · cinqque · cinuqe · ciqnue · cnique · icnque
  • cliquecclique · cilque · cliqeu · cliqque · cliuqe · cllique · clqiue · lcique

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cinque" and "clique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɪŋk/ versus /kliːk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cinque" vs "clique" - which ranks higher?
"clique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,784 in our English list, against #49,253 for "cinque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "clique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,946 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cinque" and "clique" 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 #40,946 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