ciblésvscitéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,957
“ciblés” frequency rank
#13,541
“citées” frequency rank
34498
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ciblés citées
Definition Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe cibler. Participe passé féminin pluriel du verbe citer.

Where the eye mixes ciblés and citées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ciblés (CVCCVC) and citées (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
ciblés
6 ch
citées

Visual trap between ciblés and citées

A purely visual mix-up. ciblés (\si.ble\) and citées (\si.te\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ciblés is recorded at frequency rank #20,957, classified as averb, pronounced \si.ble\. citées is at rank #13,541, tagged as averb, pronounced \si.te\.

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 34498, this pair ranks #283,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ciblés vs citées

Shared letters: cisé. Private to "ciblés": bl. Private to "citées": et.

"ciblés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "citées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ciblés" and "citées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\si.ble\ versus \si.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ciblés" or "citées" show up more?
"citées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,541 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ciblés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "citées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #283,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ciblés" and "citées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciblés vs cigales". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #283,431 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