cible

\sibl\

/\sibl\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“cible” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,511. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,511
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de planche servant de but pour le tir à l’arc ou avec des armes à feu.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cible · cible · French

cible · rank #2,511 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,511
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH chrétiens

Nearest frequency peer: chrétiens (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « cible »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « cible » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cible vs clé
40% similar
cible vs cil
60% similar
cible vs ciel
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cible
PropertyValue
Headwordcible
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sibl\
Letters5
Frequency rank#2,511
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « cible »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.ciblese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « chrétiens » (#2,510), « city » (#2,512), « chaussures » (#2,509). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cible » est au #2,511. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around cible (IPA \sibl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,511 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for cible, with forms such as "cbile", "ccible", and "cibble". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "clé", "cil", "ciel", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cible, spelled C-I-B-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sorte de planche servant de but pour le tir à l’arc ou avec des armes à feu.
  2. 2
    Objet soumis intentionnellement à un bombardement de particules.
  3. 3
    But d’un tir sans arme, d’une malveillance, etc.
  4. 4
    But, objectif, public visé, particulièrement par une campagne publicitaire.
  5. 5
    Point de mire, personne ou objet concentrant l’attention, les moqueries, etc.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cible appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. – La comtesse ne vous a pas dit que son mari tirait à la cible ?
  2. cible de fusion inertielle, cible de spallation, cible de pulvérisation.

Synonyms

butmiremoucheobjectif

This word in other languages

target(English)diana(Español)Schießscheibe(Deutsch)alvo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cbile
  • ccible
  • cibble
  • cibel
  • ciblle
  • cilbe
  • icble

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cible - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

cbile2ccible1cibble1cibel2ciblle1cilbe2icble2
Edit distance from "cible"

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

How do you spell "cible"?
"cible" is spelled C-I-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \sibl\.
What does "cible" mean?
As a noun, "cible" means: Sorte de planche servant de but pour le tir à l’arc ou avec des armes à feu.
What words are commonly confused with "cible"?
"cible" is commonly confused with "clé", "cil", "ciel". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cible"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cible" is \sibl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cible" come from?
"cible" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cible", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

devra#2,513étage#2,499servi#2,494nulle#2,529

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

donnée7 variantsombre7 variantsfrappe7 variantsscore7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list