compliquentvscompliquerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,771
“compliquent” frequency rank
#13,756
“compliquer” frequency rank
50527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature compliquent compliquer
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe compliquer. Rendre confus ou difficile à comprendre.

Where the eye mixes compliquent and compliquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. compliquent runs 11 letters (CVCCCVCVVCC) against compliquer's 10 (CVCCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
compliquent
10 ch
compliquer

Why the eye confuses compliquent with compliquer

A purely visual mix-up. compliquent (\kɔ̃.plik\) and compliquer (\kɔ̃.pli.ke\) 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 50527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

compliquent is recorded at frequency rank #36,771, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.plik\. compliquer is at rank #13,756, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.pli.ke\.

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 50527, this pair ranks #161,981 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of compliquent vs compliquer

Shared letters: ceilmopqu. Private to "compliquent": nt. Private to "compliquer": r.

"compliquent" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVCC  ·  "compliquer" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • compliquent ← ccompliquent · cmopliquent · comlpiquent · commpliquent · compilquent · compliqeunt · compliqquent · compliquennt
  • compliquer ← ccompliquer · cmopliquer · comlpiquer · commpliquer · compilquer · compliqeur · compliqquer · compliquerr

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "compliquent" and "compliquer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.plik\ versus \kɔ̃.pli.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "compliquent" vs "compliquer" - which ranks higher?
"compliquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,756 in our French list, against #36,771 for "compliquent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "compliquent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "compliquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #161,981 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "compliquent" and "compliquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compliquées vs compliquent". 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 #161,981 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