cigognevscognéTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#38,702
“cigogne” frequency rank
#27,008
“cogné” frequency rank
65710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cigogne cogné
Definition Oiseau échassier migrateur aux longues pattes et au long bec droit (du genre Ciconia). Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe cogner.

Where the eye mixes cigogne and cogné

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
cigogne
5 ch
cogné

Why the eye confuses cigogne with cogné

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cigogne is \si.ɡɔɲ\ while cogné is \kɔ.ɲe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cigogne is recorded at frequency rank #38,702, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.ɡɔɲ\. cogné is at rank #27,008, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.ɲe\.

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 65710, this pair ranks #71,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cigogne vs cogné

Shared letters: cgno. Private to "cigogne": ei. Private to "cogné": é.

"cigogne" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "cogné" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cigogneccigogne · cgiogne · ciggogne · ciggone · cigogen · cigoggne · cigognne · cigonge

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cigogne" and "cogné" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cigogne" is a noun and "cogné" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cigogne" or "cogné"?
"cogné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,008 in our French list, against #38,702 for "cigogne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cigogne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cogné" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cigogne" and "cogné" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cigogne vs cigognes". 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 #71,105 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