Which to use
“fic” and “flics” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,762
- “fic” frequency rank
- #3,847
- “flics” frequency rank
- 50609
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fic | flics |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Verrue à pédoncule étroit ressemblant à une figue. | Pluriel de flic. |
Where the eye mixes fic and flics
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fic runs 3 letters (CVC) against flics's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fic with flics
A purely visual mix-up. fic (\fik\) and flics (\flik\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50609, 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\. flics is at rank #3,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced \flik\.
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 50609, this pair ranks #161,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fic vs flics
Shared letters: cfi. Private to "fic": -. Private to "flics": ls.
"fic" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "flics" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- flics ← fflics · filcs · flcis · fliccs · flicss · flisc · fllics · lfics
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fic" and "flics" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fic" or "flics" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fic" and "flics" 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 "flics" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #161,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fic" and "flics" 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 #161,296 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.