Which to use
“chips” and “clips” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,366
- “chips” frequency rank
- #10,126
- “clips” frequency rank
- 21492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chips | clips |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Très fine tranche de pommes de terre frite dans l’huile, saupoudrée légèrement de sel ou assaisonnée. | Pluriel de clip. |
Where the eye mixes chips and clips
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between chips and clips
A purely visual mix-up. chips (\ʃips\) and clips (\klip\) 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 a single letter - h in “chips” becomes l in “clips”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chips is recorded at frequency rank #11,366, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃips\. clips is at rank #10,126, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klip\.
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 21492, this pair ranks #362,907 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chips vs clips
Shared letters: cips. Private to "chips": h. Private to "clips": l.
"chips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "clips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chips" for "clips" ever safe?
Frequency check: "chips" vs "clips" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "chips" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #362,907 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chips" and "clips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chips vs CIP". 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 #362,907 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.