cliniquesvsconiquesConfusable pair

Which to use

“cliniques” and “coniques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,080
“cliniques” frequency rank
#37,740
“coniques” frequency rank
45820
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cliniques coniques
Definition Pluriel de clinique. Pluriel de conique.

Where the eye mixes cliniques and coniques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. cliniques runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVVC) against coniques's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
cliniques
8 ch
coniques

Why the eye confuses cliniques with coniques

A purely visual mix-up. cliniques (\kli.nik\) and coniques (\kɔ.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 45820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cliniques is recorded at frequency rank #8,080, classified as anadj, pronounced \kli.nik\. coniques is at rank #37,740, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.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 45820, this pair ranks #199,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cliniques vs coniques

Shared letters: ceinqsu. Private to "cliniques": l. Private to "coniques": o.

"cliniques" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC  ·  "coniques" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cliniques ← ccliniques · cilniques · cliinques · cliniqeus · cliniqques · cliniquess · cliniquse · cliniuqes
  • coniques ← cconiques · cnoiques · coinques · coniqeus · coniqques · coniquess · coniquse · coniuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cliniques" and "coniques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kli.nik\ versus \kɔ.nik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cliniques" or "coniques" show up more?
"cliniques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,080 in our French list, against #37,740 for "coniques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cliniques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coniques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cliniques" and "coniques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coniques vs coraniques". 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 #199,772 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