Which to use
“fétiche” and “friche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,149
- “fétiche” frequency rank
- #26,735
- “friche” frequency rank
- 46884
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fétiche | friche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet de culte animiste, objet cher aux peuples premiers ou chose qui est chez eux un objet de culte. | Terrain inculte, soit qu’on ne l’ait jamais cultivé, soit que la culture en ait été interrompue. |
Where the eye mixes fétiche and friche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fétiche runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against friche's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fétiche vs friche
A purely visual mix-up. fétiche (\fe.tiʃ\) and friche (\fʁiʃ\) 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 46884, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fétiche is recorded at frequency rank #20,149, classified as anoun, pronounced \fe.tiʃ\. friche is at rank #26,735, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁiʃ\.
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 46884, this pair ranks #191,293 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fétiche vs friche
Shared letters: cefhi. Private to "fétiche": té. Private to "friche": r.
"fétiche" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "friche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- friche ← ffriche · firche · frcihe · fricche · friceh · frichhe · frihce · frriche
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fétiche" for "friche" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fétiche" or "friche" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fétiche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "friche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,293 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fétiche" and "friche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "friche vs fringe". 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 #191,293 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.