Which to use
“circus” and “cirques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,884
- “circus” frequency rank
- #32,746
- “cirques” frequency rank
- 64630
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | circus | cirques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom scientifique des oiseaux du genre busard. | Pluriel de cirque. |
Where the eye mixes circus and cirques
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between circus and cirques
A purely visual mix-up. circus (\siʁ.kys\) and cirques (\siʁk\) 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 64630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
circus is recorded at frequency rank #31,884, classified as anoun, pronounced \siʁ.kys\. cirques is at rank #32,746, tagged as anoun, pronounced \siʁk\.
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 64630, this pair ranks #76,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of circus vs cirques
Shared letters: cirsu. Private to "circus": -. Private to "cirques": eq.
"circus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cirques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "circus" and "cirques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "circus" or "cirques"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "circus" and "cirques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "circus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cirques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #76,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "circus" and "cirques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Circé vs circus". 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 #76,112 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.