effigievseffraieTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,120
“effigie” frequency rank
#22,251
“effraie” frequency rank
38371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature effigie effraie
Definition Figure, représentation d’une personne sous une forme quelconque. Rapace nocturne du genre Tyto.

Where the eye mixes effigie and effraie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. effigie (VCCVCVV) and effraie (VCCCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
effigie
7 ch
effraie

Visual trap between effigie and effraie

A purely visual mix-up. effigie (\ɛ.fi.ʒi\) and effraie (\ɛf.ʁɛ\) 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 38371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

effigie is recorded at frequency rank #16,120, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.fi.ʒi\. effraie is at rank #22,251, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛf.ʁɛ\.

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 38371, this pair ranks #255,718 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of effigie vs effraie

Shared letters: efi. Private to "effigie": g. Private to "effraie": ar.

"effigie" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "effraie" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • effigie ← effgiie · effigei · effiggie · effiige · efifgie · efigie · fefigie
  • effraie ← effarie · effraei · effriae · effrraie · efraie · efrfaie · fefraie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "effigie" for "effraie" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ.fi.ʒi\ versus \ɛf.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "effigie" or "effraie"?
"effigie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,120 in our French list, against #22,251 for "effraie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "effigie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "effraie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,718 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "effigie" and "effraie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effraie vs effréné". 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 #255,718 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