chiffragevschiffreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,881
“chiffrage” frequency rank
#1,946
“chiffre” frequency rank
33827
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chiffrage chiffre
Definition Action d’écrire en chiffre ; cette écriture elle-même. Caractère utilisé pour écrire les nombres. Par analogie avec les mots, on peut dire que les chiffres constituent l’alphabet des nombres.

Where the eye mixes chiffrage and chiffre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. chiffrage runs 9 letters (CCVCCCVCV) against chiffre's 7 (CCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
chiffrage
7 ch
chiffre

Look-alike desk: chiffrage vs chiffre

A purely visual mix-up. chiffrage (\ʃi.fʁaʒ\) and chiffre (\ʃifʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chiffrage is recorded at frequency rank #31,881, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃi.fʁaʒ\. chiffre is at rank #1,946, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃifʁ\.

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 33827, this pair ranks #288,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chiffrage vs chiffre

Shared letters: cefhir. Private to "chiffrage": ag. Private to "chiffre": -.

"chiffrage" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCCVCV  ·  "chiffre" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chiffrage ← cchiffrage · chfifrage · chhiffrage · chiffarge · chiffraeg · chiffragge · chiffrgae · chiffrrage
  • chiffre ← cchiffre · chfifre · chhiffre · chiffer · chiffrre · chifre · chifrfe · cihffre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chiffrage" and "chiffre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃi.fʁaʒ\ versus \ʃifʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chiffrage" or "chiffre"?
"chiffre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,946 in our French list, against #31,881 for "chiffrage". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chiffrage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chiffre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chiffrage" and "chiffre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chiffrage vs chiffrée". 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 #288,019 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