Which to use
“cirques” and “cliques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,746
- “cirques” frequency rank
- #28,486
- “cliques” frequency rank
- 61232
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cirques | cliques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de cirque. | Nom par lequel on désignait des sabots de bois dans certaines provinces. |
Where the eye mixes cirques and cliques
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cirques (CVCCVVC) and cliques (CCVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: cirques vs cliques
A purely visual mix-up. cirques (\siʁk\) and cliques (\klik\) 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 61232, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cirques is recorded at frequency rank #32,746, classified as anoun, pronounced \siʁk\. cliques is at rank #28,486, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klik\.
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 61232, this pair ranks #93,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cirques vs cliques
Shared letters: ceiqsu. Private to "cirques": r. Private to "cliques": l.
"cirques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "cliques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cirques" and "cliques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cirques" or "cliques" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cirques" and "cliques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cirques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cliques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #93,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cirques" and "cliques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "claquée vs cliques". 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 #93,362 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.