Which to use
“Circé” is a name and “citée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,789
- “Circé” frequency rank
- #9,448
- “citée” frequency rank
- 57237
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Circé | citée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Magicienne présente dans l’Odyssée d’Homère. | Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe citer. |
Where the eye mixes Circé and citée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Circé (CVCCV) and citée (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between Circé and citée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Circé is \siʁ.se\ while citée is \si.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Circé is recorded at frequency rank #47,789, classified as aname, pronounced \siʁ.se\. citée is at rank #9,448, tagged as averb, pronounced \si.te\.
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 57237, this pair ranks #116,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Circé vs citée
Shared letters: cié. Private to "Circé": r. Private to "citée": et.
"Circé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "citée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Circé" for "citée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "Circé" or "citée" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Circé" and "citée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Circé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "citée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #116,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Circé" and "citée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Circé vs ciro". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #116,237 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.