cilvscomConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#33,611
“cil” frequency rank
#3,446
“com” frequency rank
37057
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cil com
Definition Poil des paupières. Communication.

Where the eye mixes cil and com

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cil
3 ch
com

Look-alike desk: cil vs com

A purely visual mix-up. cil (\sil\) and com (\kɔm\) 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 37057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cil is recorded at frequency rank #33,611, classified as anoun, pronounced \sil\. com is at rank #3,446, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔm\.

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 37057, this pair ranks #265,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cil vs com

Shared letters: c. Private to "cil": il. Private to "com": mo.

"cil" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "com" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cil" for "com" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sil\ versus \kɔm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cil" vs "com" - which ranks higher?
"com" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,446 in our French list, against #33,611 for "cil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "com" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cil" and "com" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cil vs ciro". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #265,187 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