CICEvscinqTell them apart

Quick tell: CICE is a noun, cinq is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“CICE” is a noun and “cinq” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,374
“CICE” frequency rank
#424
“cinq” frequency rank
17798
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature CICE cinq
Definition Dispositif fiscal français, créé en 2013 et supprimé en 2019, qui permettait aux entreprises de bénéficier d’un crédit d’impôt calculé sur la masse salariale, dans le but de soutenir la rémunération globale des salarié·e·s et d’encourager l’investissement, la recherche et l’emploi. Adjectif numéral correspondant au cardinal quatre plus un.

Where the eye mixes CICE and cinq

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

4 ch
CICE
4 ch
cinq

Visual trap between CICE and cinq

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: CICE is \se.i.se.ø\ while cinq is \sɛ̃k\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CICE is recorded at frequency rank #17,374, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.i.se.ø\. cinq is at rank #424, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛ̃k\.

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 17798, this pair ranks #381,457 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of CICE vs cinq

Shared letters: ci. Private to "CICE": e. Private to "cinq": nq.

"CICE" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cinq" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • CICEccice · ccie · cicce · ciec · icce
  • cinqccinq · cinnq · cinqq · ciqn · cniq · icnq

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "CICE" for "cinq" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "CICE" is a noun and "cinq" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "CICE" vs "cinq" - which ranks higher?
"cinq" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #424 in our French list, against #17,374 for "CICE". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "CICE" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cinq" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #381,457 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "CICE" and "cinq" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CICE vs ciro". 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 #381,457 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