ciblevscinéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,511
“cible” frequency rank
#7,941
“ciné” frequency rank
10452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cible ciné
Definition Sorte de planche servant de but pour le tir à l’arc ou avec des armes à feu. Salle de cinéma.

Where the eye mixes cible and ciné

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cible
4 ch
ciné

Visual trap between cible and ciné

A purely visual mix-up. cible (\sibl\) and ciné (\si.ne\) 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 10452, 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\. ciné is at rank #7,941, tagged as anoun, pronounced \si.ne\.

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 10452, this pair ranks #412,947 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cible vs ciné

Shared letters: ci. Private to "cible": bel. Private to "ciné": .

"cible" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ciné" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cible" and "ciné" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sibl\ versus \si.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cible" vs "ciné" - which ranks higher?
"cible" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,511 in our French list, against #7,941 for "ciné". 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 "cible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ciné" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,947 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cible" and "ciné" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciné vs conde". 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 #412,947 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