chimiquesvsciviquesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,471
“chimiques” frequency rank
#16,321
“civiques” frequency rank
20792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chimiques civiques
Definition Pluriel de chimique. Pluriel de civique.

Where the eye mixes chimiques and civiques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. chimiques runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVVC) against civiques's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
chimiques
8 ch
civiques

Look-alike desk: chimiques vs civiques

A purely visual mix-up. chimiques (\ʃi.mik\) and civiques (\si.vik\) 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 20792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chimiques is recorded at frequency rank #4,471, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃi.mik\. civiques is at rank #16,321, tagged as anadj, pronounced \si.vik\.

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 20792, this pair ranks #366,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chimiques vs civiques

Shared letters: ceiqsu. Private to "chimiques": hm. Private to "civiques": v.

"chimiques" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC  ·  "civiques" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chimiquescchimiques · chhimiques · chiimques · chimiqeus · chimiqques · chimiquess · chimiquse · chimiuqes
  • civiquescciviques · ciivques · civiqeus · civiqques · civiquess · civiquse · civiuqes · civqiues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chimiques" for "civiques" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃi.mik\ versus \si.vik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chimiques" vs "civiques" - which ranks higher?
"chimiques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,471 in our French list, against #16,321 for "civiques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chimiques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "civiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chimiques" and "civiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "civiques vs coniques". 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 #366,481 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