ciblevsciblésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cible is a noun, ciblés is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cible” is a noun and “ciblés” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,511
“cible” frequency rank
#20,957
“ciblés” frequency rank
23468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cible ciblés
Definition Sorte de planche servant de but pour le tir à l’arc ou avec des armes à feu. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe cibler.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cible and ciblés apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
cible
6 ch
ciblés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cible is \sibl\ while ciblés is \si.ble\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cible is recorded at frequency rank #2,511, classified as anoun, pronounced \sibl\. ciblés is at rank #20,957, tagged as averb, pronounced \si.ble\.

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 23468, this pair ranks #352,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cible vs ciblés

Shared letters: bcil. Private to "cible": e. Private to "ciblés": .

"cible" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ciblés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ciblecbile · ccible · cibble · cibel · ciblle · cilbe · icble

Frequency comparison

cible#2,511
ciblés#20,957

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cible" and "ciblés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cible" is a noun and "ciblés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cible" or "ciblés"?
"cible" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,511 in our French list, against #20,957 for "ciblés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cible vs ciblés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cible”; for a verb, it's “ciblés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cible” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list