civiquesvscliquesConfusable pair

Quick tell: civiques is a adjective, cliques is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“civiques” is an adjective and “cliques” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,321
“civiques” frequency rank
#28,486
“cliques” frequency rank
44807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature civiques cliques
Definition Pluriel de civique. Nom par lequel on désignait des sabots de bois dans certaines provinces.

Where the eye mixes civiques and cliques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. civiques runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against cliques's 7 (CCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
civiques
7 ch
cliques

Why the eye confuses civiques with cliques

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: civiques is \si.vik\ while cliques is \klik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

civiques is recorded at frequency rank #16,321, classified as anadj, pronounced \si.vik\. 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 44807, this pair ranks #207,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of civiques vs cliques

Shared letters: ceiqsu. Private to "civiques": v. Private to "cliques": l.

"civiques" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "cliques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • civiquescciviques · ciivques · civiqeus · civiqques · civiquess · civiquse · civiuqes · civqiues
  • cliquesccliques · cilques · cliqeus · cliqques · cliquess · cliquse · cliuqes · clliques

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "civiques" and "cliques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "civiques" is an adjective and "cliques" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "civiques" or "cliques" show up more?
"civiques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,321 in our French list, against #28,486 for "cliques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "civiques" and "cliques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "civiques" 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 #207,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "civiques" 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 #207,660 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list