celtiquevscritiqueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,474
“celtique” frequency rank
#934
“critique” frequency rank
20408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celtique critique
Definition Qui appartient, qui est relatif aux Celtes, à leurs traditions, à leur langue, le celte. Qui annonce une crise, qui a rapport à la crise.

Where the eye mixes celtique and critique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. celtique (CVCCVCVV) and critique (CCVCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
celtique
8 ch
critique

Look-alike desk: celtique vs critique

A purely visual mix-up. celtique (\sɛl.tik\) and critique (\kʁi.tik\) 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 20408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celtique is recorded at frequency rank #19,474, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɛl.tik\. critique is at rank #934, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁi.tik\.

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 20408, this pair ranks #368,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of celtique vs critique

Shared letters: ceiqtu. Private to "celtique": l. Private to "critique": r.

"celtique" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "critique" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • celtique ← cceltique · celitque · celltique · celtiqeu · celtiqque · celtiuqe · celtqiue · celttique
  • critique ← ccritique · cirtique · criitque · critiqeu · critiqque · critiuqe · critqiue · crittique

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "celtique" for "critique" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɛl.tik\ versus \kʁi.tik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "celtique" or "critique"?
"critique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #934 in our French list, against #19,474 for "celtique". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "celtique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "critique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #368,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "celtique" and "critique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "celtique vs celtiques". 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 #368,434 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