ambiguëvsambigusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“ambiguë” and “ambigus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,755
“ambiguë” frequency rank
#45,991
“ambigus” frequency rank
69746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ambiguë ambigus
Definition Féminin singulier de ambigu. Masculin pluriel de ambigu.

Same sound, different letters: ambiguë vs ambigus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
ambiguë
7 ch
ambigus

Ear matches; page differs - ambiguë and ambigus

This is the hard kind. ambiguë and ambigus are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.bi.ɡy\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - ë in “ambiguë” becomes s in “ambigus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ambiguë is recorded at frequency rank #23,755, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.bi.ɡy\. ambigus is at rank #45,991, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.bi.ɡy\.

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 69746, this pair ranks #53,986 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ambiguë vs ambigus

Shared letters: abgimu. Private to "ambiguë": ë. Private to "ambigus": s.

"ambiguë" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "ambigus" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ambigusabmigus · ambbigus · ambgius · ambiggus · ambigsu · ambiguss · ambiugs · amibgus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ambiguë" and "ambigus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɑ̃.bi.ɡy\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "ambiguë" vs "ambigus" - which ranks higher?
"ambiguë" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,755 in our French list, against #45,991 for "ambigus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ambiguë" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ambigus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,986 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ambiguë" and "ambigus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ambigus vs amigos". 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 #53,986 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list