Which to use
“cage” and “ciné” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,639
- “cage” frequency rank
- #7,941
- “ciné” frequency rank
- 13580
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cage | ciné |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite loge portative faite de fils de fer ou de menus bâtons d’osier et dans laquelle on enferme ordinairement des petits animaux. | Salle de cinéma. |
Where the eye mixes cage and ciné
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. cage and ciné follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cage and ciné
A purely visual mix-up. cage (\kaʒ\) and ciné (\si.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13580, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cage is recorded at frequency rank #5,639, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaʒ\. ciné is at rank #7,941, tagged as anoun, pronounced \si.ne\.
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 13580, this pair ranks #400,408 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cage vs ciné
Shared letters: c. Private to "cage": aeg. Private to "ciné": iné.
"cage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "ciné" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cage ← acge · caeg · cagge · ccage · cgae
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cage" for "ciné" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cage" vs "ciné" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ciné" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,408 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cage" and "ciné" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciné vs conde". 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 #400,408 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.