cliquesvscliquetisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#28,486
“cliques” frequency rank
#44,934
“cliquetis” frequency rank
73420
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cliques cliquetis
Definition Nom par lequel on désignait des sabots de bois dans certaines provinces. Bruit que font des armes blanches quand on les choque les unes contre les autres.

Where the eye mixes cliques and cliquetis

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

7 ch
cliques
9 ch
cliquetis

Why the eye confuses cliques with cliquetis

A purely visual mix-up. cliques (\klik\) and cliquetis (\klik.ti\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cliques is recorded at frequency rank #28,486, classified as anoun, pronounced \klik\. cliquetis is at rank #44,934, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klik.ti\.

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 73420, this pair ranks #40,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cliques vs cliquetis

Shared letters: ceilqsu. Private to "cliques": -. Private to "cliquetis": t.

"cliques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "cliquetis" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cliquesccliques · cilques · cliqeus · cliqques · cliquess · cliquse · cliuqes · clliques
  • cliquetisccliquetis · cilquetis · cliqeutis · cliqquetis · cliqueits · cliquetiss · cliquetsi · cliquettis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cliques" for "cliquetis" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\klik\ versus \klik.ti\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cliques" vs "cliquetis" - which ranks higher?
"cliques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,486 in our French list, against #44,934 for "cliquetis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cliques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cliquetis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cliques" and "cliquetis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cliquetis vs criquets". 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 #40,532 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