Which to use
“celles” and “cycles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #704
- “celles” frequency rank
- #9,302
- “cycles” frequency rank
- 10006
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | celles | cycles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de celle. | Pluriel de cycle. |
Where the eye mixes celles and cycles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses celles with cycles
A purely visual mix-up. celles (\sɛl\) and cycles (\sikl\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
celles is recorded at frequency rank #704, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\. cycles is at rank #9,302, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sikl\.
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 10006, this pair ranks #414,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of celles vs cycles
Shared letters: cels. Private to "celles": -. Private to "cycles": y.
"celles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cycles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "celles" and "cycles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "celles" or "cycles"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "celles" and "cycles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "celles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cycles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #414,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "celles" and "cycles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "callas vs celles". 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 #414,585 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.