Which to use
“circa” is a preposition and “cirer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,230
- “circa” frequency rank
- #29,284
- “cirer” frequency rank
- 71514
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | circa | cirer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | À peu près, aux environs de, vers. | Enduire ou frotter de cire. |
Where the eye mixes circa and cirer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. circa (CVCCV) and cirer (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between circa and cirer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: circa is \siʁ.ka\ while cirer is \si.ʁe\. 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 (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
circa is recorded at frequency rank #42,230, classified as aprep, pronounced \siʁ.ka\. cirer is at rank #29,284, tagged as averb, pronounced \si.ʁe\.
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 71514, this pair ranks #47,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of circa vs cirer
Shared letters: cir. Private to "circa": a. Private to "cirer": e.
"circa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cirer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "circa" for "cirer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "circa" or "cirer" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "circa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cirer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #47,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "circa" and "cirer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "circa 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 #47,299 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.