hic

^((h aspiré))\ik\

/^((h aspiré))\ik\/ noun

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

The verdict

“hic” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16,382) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#16,382
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nœud ou principale difficulté d’une affaire, problème.

Corpus desk

Index FR-hic · hic · French

hic · rank #16,382 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #16,382
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH heureuses

Nearest frequency peer: heureuses (-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 « hic »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « hic » 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).

hic vs hp
33% similar
hic vs Hs
0% similar
hic vs hm
33% similar

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

Key facts for hic
PropertyValue
Headwordhic
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA^((h aspiré))\ik\
Letters3
Frequency rank#16,382
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « hic »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.hicse 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 « heureuses » (#16,381), « hold » (#16,383), « holding » (#16,384). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « hic » est au #16,382. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for hic is neighbouring look-alikes ("hp", "Hs", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ik\. Frequency #16,382 among 1,969 “H” headwords. Gloss: "Nœud ou principale difficulté d’une affaire, problème.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for hic, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hp", "Hs", "hm", 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 pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is hic, spelled H-I-C.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nœud ou principale difficulté d’une affaire, problème.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Voilà le hic, c’est là le hic, voilà le problème.
  2. Ma vie doit être respectable. Songez donc : un de mes élèves me rencontrerai saoul dans la rue !… Respectable ; et sans que ça ait l’air contraint ; c’est là le hic ; il ne faut pas donner à penser : Monsieur Defouqueblize (c’est mon nom) fait rudement bien de se retenir !…

This word in other languages

hitch(English)quid(Español)Haken(Deutsch)aqui(Português)

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 "hic"?
"hic" is spelled H-I-C. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h aspiré))\ik\.
What does "hic" mean?
As a noun, "hic" means: Nœud ou principale difficulté d’une affaire, problème.
What words are commonly confused with "hic"?
"hic" is commonly confused with "hp", "Hs", "hm". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "hic"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hic" is ^((h aspiré))\ik\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hic" come from?
"hic" 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 "hic", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

fie#16,363dun#16,344PAC#16,438ass#16,298

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list