chicovsCICEWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: chico is a adjective, CICE is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chico” is an adjective and “CICE” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,247
“chico” frequency rank
#17,374
“CICE” frequency rank
42621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chico CICE
Definition Petit. Dispositif fiscal français, créé en 2013 et supprimé en 2019, qui permettait aux entreprises de bénéficier d’un crédit d’impôt calculé sur la masse salariale, dans le but de soutenir la rémunération globale des salarié·e·s et d’encourager l’investissement, la recherche et l’emploi.

Where the eye mixes chico and CICE

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

5 ch
chico
4 ch
CICE

Visual trap between chico and CICE

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chico is \ˈtʃi.ko\ while CICE is \se.i.se.ø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chico is recorded at frequency rank #25,247, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈtʃi.ko\. CICE is at rank #17,374, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.i.se.ø\.

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 42621, this pair ranks #224,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chico vs CICE

Shared letters: ci. Private to "chico": ho. Private to "CICE": e.

"chico" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "CICE" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chicocchico · chcio · chhico · chicco · chioc · cihco · hcico
  • CICEccice · ccie · cicce · ciec · icce

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chico" for "CICE" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chico" is an adjective and "CICE" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chico" or "CICE"?
"CICE" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,374 in our French list, against #25,247 for "chico". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chico" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CICE" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chico" and "CICE" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chico vs ciro". 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 #224,223 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