cliquesvscriquetsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,486
“cliques” frequency rank
#44,960
“criquets” frequency rank
73446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes cliques and criquets

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

7 ch
cliques
8 ch
criquets

Visual trap between cliques and criquets

A purely visual mix-up. cliques (\klik\) and criquets (\kʁi.kɛ\) 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 73446, 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\. criquets is at rank #44,960, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi.kɛ\.

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 73446, this pair ranks #40,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cliques vs criquets

Shared letters: ceiqsu. Private to "cliques": l. Private to "criquets": rt.

"cliques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "criquets" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cliquesccliques · cilques · cliqeus · cliqques · cliquess · cliquse · cliuqes · clliques
  • criquetsccriquets · cirquets · criqeuts · criqquets · criquest · criquetss · criquetts · criqutes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cliques" and "criquets" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\klik\ versus \kʁi.kɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cliques" or "criquets"?
"cliques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,486 in our French list, against #44,960 for "criquets". 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 "criquets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cliques" and "criquets" 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 #40,442 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