complicevscompriseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,290
“complice” frequency rank
#6,938
“comprise” frequency rank
14228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature complice comprise
Definition Qui participe au délit ou au crime commis par un autre. Féminin singulier de compris.

Where the eye mixes complice and comprise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. complice and comprise follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
complice
8 ch
comprise

Visual trap between complice and comprise

A purely visual mix-up. complice (\kɔ̃.plis\) and comprise (\kɔ̃.pʁiz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

complice is recorded at frequency rank #7,290, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.plis\. comprise is at rank #6,938, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.pʁiz\.

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 14228, this pair ranks #397,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of complice vs comprise

Shared letters: ceimop. Private to "complice": l. Private to "comprise": rs.

"complice" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV  ·  "comprise" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • complice ← ccomplice · cmoplice · comlpice · commplice · compilce · complcie · complicce · compliec
  • comprise ← ccomprise · cmoprise · commprise · compirse · compprise · compries · comprisse · comprrise

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "complice" and "comprise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.plis\ versus \kɔ̃.pʁiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "complice" vs "comprise" - which ranks higher?
"comprise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,938 in our French list, against #7,290 for "complice". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "complice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comprise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "complice" and "comprise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compresse vs comprise". 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 #397,592 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