ciblervscribleWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,320
“cibler” frequency rank
#27,390
“crible” frequency rank
43710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cibler crible
Definition Lancer quelque chose sur quelqu’un. Instrument percé d’un grand nombre de trous qui sert à trier des objets de grosseur ou de qualité inégales, en laissant passer les uns et en repoussant les autres.

Where the eye mixes cibler and crible

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cibler (CVCCVC) and crible (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
cibler
6 ch
crible

Why the eye confuses cibler with crible

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cibler is \si.ble\ while crible is \kʁibl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43710, 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\. crible is at rank #27,390, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁibl\.

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 43710, this pair ranks #216,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cibler vs crible

Shared letters: bceilr. Private to "cibler": -. Private to "crible": -.

"cibler" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "crible" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ciblercbiler · ccibler · cibbler · cibelr · ciblerr · cibller · ciblre · cilber
  • cribleccrible · cirble · crbile · cribble · cribel · criblle · crilbe · crrible

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cibler" for "crible" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cibler" is a verb and "crible" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cibler" or "crible"?
"cibler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,320 in our French list, against #27,390 for "crible". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cibler" and "crible" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cibler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,033 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cibler" and "crible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crible vs crisse". 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 #216,033 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