Which to use
“civique” and “clinique” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,125
- “civique” frequency rank
- #3,667
- “clinique” frequency rank
- 13792
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | civique | clinique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui concerne le citoyen et la citoyenne. | Qui a lieu auprès du lit des malades. |
Where the eye mixes civique and clinique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. civique runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against clinique's 8 (CCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses civique with clinique
A purely visual mix-up. civique (\si.vik\) and clinique (\kli.nik\) 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 13792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
civique is recorded at frequency rank #10,125, classified as anadj, pronounced \si.vik\. clinique is at rank #3,667, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kli.nik\.
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 13792, this pair ranks #399,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of civique vs clinique
Shared letters: ceiqu. Private to "civique": v. Private to "clinique": ln.
"civique" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "clinique" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "civique" and "clinique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "civique" or "clinique" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "civique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clinique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "civique" and "clinique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "civique vs cubique". 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 #399,514 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.