chiffréevschiffrerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: chiffrée is a adjective, chiffrer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chiffrée” is an adjective and “chiffrer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,604
“chiffrée” frequency rank
#24,900
“chiffrer” frequency rank
58504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chiffrée chiffrer
Definition Féminin singulier de chiffré. Se servir des chiffres pour calculer.

Same sound, different letters: chiffrée vs chiffrer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. chiffrée (CCVCCCVV) and chiffrer (CCVCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
chiffrée
8 ch
chiffrer

Same sound, different spelling - chiffrée / chiffrer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: chiffrée and chiffrer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʃi.fʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chiffrée is recorded at frequency rank #33,604, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃi.fʁe\. chiffrer is at rank #24,900, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃi.fʁe\.

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 58504, this pair ranks #108,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chiffrée vs chiffrer

Shared letters: cefhir. Private to "chiffrée": é. Private to "chiffrer": -.

"chiffrée" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVV  ·  "chiffrer" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chiffrer ← cchiffrer · chfifrer · chhiffrer · chifferr · chiffrerr · chiffrrer · chifrer · chifrfer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chiffrée" and "chiffrer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chiffrée" is an adjective and "chiffrer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chiffrée" or "chiffrer"?
"chiffrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,900 in our French list, against #33,604 for "chiffrée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "chiffrée" / "chiffrer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chiffrée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chiffrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #108,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chiffrée" and "chiffrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chicorée 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 #108,671 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