ci
\si\
The verdict
“ci” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #264 in French word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #264
- frequency rank, French
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - ou (Utilisé uniquement dans les compositions, pas utilisé isolément) Ici.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ci |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \si\ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #264 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ci” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ci is 2 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \si\. Corpus data places it at rank #264 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for ci in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "Cm", "CV", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is ci, spelled C-I.
Definition
- 1ou (Utilisé uniquement dans les compositions, pas utilisé isolément) Ici.
- 2ou (Utilisé uniquement dans les compositions, pas utilisé isolément) Ici.
- 3ou (Utilisé uniquement dans les compositions, pas utilisé isolément) Ici.
- 4ou (Utilisé uniquement dans les compositions, pas utilisé isolément) Ici.
- 5ou (Utilisé uniquement dans les compositions, pas utilisé isolément) Ici.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ci”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \si\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “co” - see the side-by-side comparison. ci vs co
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.