Which to use
“fic” and “fiche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,762
- “fic” frequency rank
- #1,917
- “fiche” frequency rank
- 48679
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fic | fiche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Verrue à pédoncule étroit ressemblant à une figue. | Action de ficher, d’enfoncer ; quantité dont on enfonce dans le sol un pieu de fondation. |
Where the eye mixes fic and fiche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fic runs 3 letters (CVC) against fiche's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fic with fiche
A purely visual mix-up. fic (\fik\) and fiche (\fiʃ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “fic” sits inside “fiche”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fic is recorded at frequency rank #46,762, classified as anoun, pronounced \fik\. fiche is at rank #1,917, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fiʃ\.
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 48679, this pair ranks #176,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fic vs fiche
Shared letters: cfi. Private to "fic": -. Private to "fiche": eh.
"fic" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fiche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fiche ← fcihe · ffiche · ficche · ficeh · fichhe · fihce · ifche
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fic" and "fiche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fic" or "fiche"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fic" and "fiche" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fiche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #176,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fic" and "fiche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fic". 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 #176,869 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.