Which to use
“chiffre” and “coiffe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,946
- “chiffre” frequency rank
- #18,964
- “coiffe” frequency rank
- 20910
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chiffre | coiffe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caractère utilisé pour écrire les nombres. Par analogie avec les mots, on peut dire que les chiffres constituent l’alphabet des nombres. | Couvre-chef destiné à couvrir la tête des femmes. |
Where the eye mixes chiffre and coiffe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: chiffre vs coiffe
A purely visual mix-up. chiffre (\ʃifʁ\) and coiffe (\kwaf\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chiffre is recorded at frequency rank #1,946, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃifʁ\. coiffe is at rank #18,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kwaf\.
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 20910, this pair ranks #365,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chiffre vs coiffe
Shared letters: cefi. Private to "chiffre": hr. Private to "coiffe": o.
"chiffre" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV · "coiffe" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chiffre" and "coiffe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "chiffre" or "coiffe" show up more?
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 "chiffre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coiffe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chiffre" and "coiffe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "codifié vs coiffe". 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 #365,867 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.