cilsvsCSSTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,107
“cils” frequency rank
#18,705
“CSS” frequency rank
33812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cils CSS
Definition Pluriel de cil. Séquence d’instructions de rendu visuel, auditif ou tactile d’une ressource HTML ou XML.

Where the eye mixes cils and CSS

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

4 ch
cils
3 ch
CSS

Why the eye confuses cils with CSS

A purely visual mix-up. cils (\sil\) and CSS (\se ɛ.s‿ɛs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cils is recorded at frequency rank #15,107, classified as anoun, pronounced \sil\. CSS is at rank #18,705, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se ɛ.s‿ɛs\.

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 33812, this pair ranks #288,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cils vs CSS

Shared letters: cs. Private to "cils": il. Private to "CSS": -.

"cils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "CSS" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cilsccils · cills · cilss · cisl · clis · icls

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cils" and "CSS" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\sil\ versus \se ɛ.s‿ɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cils" vs "CSS" - which ranks higher?
"cils" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,107 in our French list, against #18,705 for "CSS". 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 "cils" and "CSS" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CSS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cils" and "CSS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs CSS". 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 #288,108 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