cire

\siʁ\

/\siʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“cire” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #9,617) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#9,617
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ester d'éthylène glycol et d'acides gras.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cire · cire · French

cire · rank #9,617 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #9,617
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH chinoises

Nearest frequency peer: chinoises (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « cire »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « cire » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

cire vs CR
0% similar
cire vs cru
50% similar
cire vs clé
25% similar

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

Key facts for cire
PropertyValue
Headwordcire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\siʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#9,617
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « cire »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).cirese 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 « chinoises » (#9,616), « clic » (#9,618), « CFA » (#9,615). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cire » est au #9,617. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for cire is neighbouring look-alikes ("CR", "cru", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \siʁ\. Frequency #9,617 among 8,609 “C” headwords. 9 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for cire, with forms such as "ccire", "cier", and "cirre". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CR", "cru", "clé", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is cire, spelled C-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ester d'éthylène glycol et d'acides gras.
  2. 2
    Matière molle, très fusible et jaunâtre, avec laquelle les abeilles construisent les gâteaux de leurs ruches et qu’on emploie à différents usages, dans les arts, dans l’économie domestique, etc.
  3. 3
    Produit ménager, parfois à base de cire d'abeille, utilisé pour entretenir et faire briller les objets en bois.
  4. 4
    Matière plastique à chaud et rigide à froid.
  5. 5
    Luminaire d’une église.
  6. 6
    Composition faite de laque et d’autres matières, à laquelle on donne diverses couleurs et dont on se sert pour cacheter les lettres.
  7. 7
    Humeur épaisse et jaune qui se forme dans les oreilles. → voir cérumen
  8. 8
    Résine, assez semblable à la cire des abeilles, qui coule de certains arbres et qu’on appelle cire végétale.
  9. 9
    Membrane ayant l’aspect de la cire, qu’on remarque à la base du bec de certains oiseaux.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il faut débarrasser le coton des produits ligneux, pectiques, mucilagineux ainsi que des gommes, résines et cires qu'il peut renfermer ….
  2. Les substances produites par les abeilles à l'intérieur des ruches sont le résultat modifié de celles qui ont été récoltées au dehors ; ce sont le miel et la cire.

This word in other languages

wax(English)cera(Español)Wachs(Deutsch)cera(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccire
  • cier
  • cirre
  • icre

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cire - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ccire1cier2cirre1icre2
Edit distance from "cire"

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 "cire"?
"cire" is spelled C-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \siʁ\.
What does "cire" mean?
As a noun, "cire" means: Ester d'éthylène glycol et d'acides gras.
What words are commonly confused with "cire"?
"cire" is commonly confused with "CR", "cru", "clé". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cire" is \siʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cire" come from?
"cire" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "cire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

clic#9,618clin#9,619dick#9,640aies#9,592

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list