biffvsbluffWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,670
“biff” frequency rank
#18,414
“bluff” frequency rank
58084
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature biff bluff
Definition Argent, billet de banque. Propos ou acte consistant à faire croire qu’on a un jeu différent de celui qu’on a en vérité.

Where the eye mixes biff and bluff

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
biff
5 ch
bluff

Visual trap between biff and bluff

A purely visual mix-up. biff (\bif\) and bluff (\blœf\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

biff is recorded at frequency rank #39,670, classified as anoun, pronounced \bif\. bluff is at rank #18,414, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blœf\.

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 58084, this pair ranks #111,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of biff vs bluff

Shared letters: bf. Private to "biff": i. Private to "bluff": lu.

"biff" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bluff" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • biffbbiff · bfif · bif · ibff
  • bluffbbluff · blfuf · blluff · bluf · bulff · lbuff

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "biff" for "bluff" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bif\ versus \blœf\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "biff" or "bluff"?
"bluff" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,414 in our French list, against #39,670 for "biff". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "biff" and "bluff" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "biff" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bluff" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #111,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "biff" and "bluff" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bafa vs biff". 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 #111,134 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