cecivsceliTell them apart

Which to use

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

#959
“ceci” frequency rank
#47,778
“celi” frequency rank
48737
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ceci celi
Definition Pronom démonstratif neutre désignant un objet situé à proximité de la personne qui parle ou une image située à proximité du mot. Celui.

Letter map: ceci vs celi

Shared letters muted; letters that set ceci and celi apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. ceci and celi follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
ceci
4 ch
celi

Corpus notes: ceci and celi

ceci and celi are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - c in “ceci” becomes l in “celi”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ceci is recorded at frequency rank #959, classified as apron, pronounced \sə.si\. celi is at rank #47,778, tagged as apron.

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 48737, this pair ranks #176,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ceci vs celi

Shared letters: cei. Private to "ceci": -. Private to "celi": l.

"ceci" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "celi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceci ← cceci · ccei · cecci · ceic · ecci
  • celi ← cceli · celli · clei · ecli

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ceci" and "celi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - c in “ceci” becomes l in “celi”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary French text, does "ceci" or "celi" show up more?
"ceci" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #959 in our French list, against #47,778 for "celi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "ceci" vs "celi" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ceci" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "celi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #176,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ceci" and "celi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "celi vs cese". 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 #176,425 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