Which to use
“cyclisme” is a noun and “cycliste” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,682
- “cyclisme” frequency rank
- #7,296
- “cycliste” frequency rank
- 17978
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cyclisme | cycliste |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sport qui consiste à monter une bicyclette ou une motocyclette (bien qu’on dise plutôt motocyclisme dans ce second cas). | Qui concerne le cyclisme. |
Where the eye mixes cyclisme and cycliste
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. cyclisme and cycliste follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses cyclisme with cycliste
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cyclisme is \si.klism\ while cycliste is \si.klist\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “cyclisme” becomes t in “cycliste”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cyclisme is recorded at frequency rank #10,682, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.klism\. cycliste is at rank #7,296, tagged as anadj, pronounced \si.klist\.
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 17978, this pair ranks #380,564 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cyclisme vs cycliste
Shared letters: ceilsy. Private to "cyclisme": m. Private to "cycliste": t.
"cyclisme" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "cycliste" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cyclisme" for "cycliste" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cyclisme" vs "cycliste" - which ranks higher?
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 "cyclisme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cycliste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #380,564 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cyclisme" and "cycliste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cyclique vs cyclisme". 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 #380,564 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.