Which to use
“child” and “cil” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,798
- “child” frequency rank
- #33,611
- “cil” frequency rank
- 57409
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | child | cil |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Enfant (fils ou fille). Note d’usage : Utilisé généralement dans une construction possessive. | Poil des paupières. |
Where the eye mixes child and cil
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: child vs cil
A purely visual mix-up. child (\ˈtʃaɪld\) and cil (\sil\) 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 57409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
child is recorded at frequency rank #23,798, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈtʃaɪld\. cil is at rank #33,611, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sil\.
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 57409, this pair ranks #115,213 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of child vs cil
Shared letters: cil. Private to "child": dh. Private to "cil": -.
"child" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "cil" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- child ← cchild · chhild · chidl · childd · chilld · chlid · cihld · hcild
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "child" for "cil" ever safe?
Which is more common, "child" or "cil"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "child" and "cil" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "child" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #115,213 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "child" and "cil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cil 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 #115,213 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.