ciblervscollerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,320
“cibler” frequency rank
#6,381
“coller” frequency rank
22701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cibler coller
Definition Lancer quelque chose sur quelqu’un. Joindre et faire tenir deux choses ensemble avec de la colle.

Where the eye mixes cibler and coller

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cibler and coller follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
cibler
6 ch
coller

Look-alike desk: cibler vs coller

A purely visual mix-up. cibler (\si.ble\) and coller (\kɔ.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cibler is recorded at frequency rank #16,320, classified as averb, pronounced \si.ble\. coller is at rank #6,381, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.le\.

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 22701, this pair ranks #356,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cibler vs coller

Shared letters: celr. Private to "cibler": bi. Private to "coller": o.

"cibler" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "coller" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ciblercbiler · ccibler · cibbler · cibelr · ciblerr · cibller · ciblre · cilber
  • collerccoller · cloler · colelr · coler · collerr · collre · ocller

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cibler" for "coller" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\si.ble\ versus \kɔ.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cibler" vs "coller" - which ranks higher?
"coller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,381 in our French list, against #16,320 for "cibler". 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 "cibler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cibler" and "coller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colla vs coller". 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 #356,600 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