figéesvsfixéesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,530
“figées” frequency rank
#12,572
“fixées” frequency rank
61102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature figées fixées
Definition Féminin pluriel de figé. Féminin pluriel de fixé.

Where the eye mixes figées and fixées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. figées and fixées follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
figées
6 ch
fixées

Look-alike desk: figées vs fixées

A purely visual mix-up. figées (\fi.ʒe\) and fixées (\fik.se\) 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 a single letter - g in “figées” becomes x in “fixées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

figées is recorded at frequency rank #48,530, classified as anadj, pronounced \fi.ʒe\. fixées is at rank #12,572, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fik.se\.

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 61102, this pair ranks #94,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of figées vs fixées

Shared letters: efisé. Private to "figées": g. Private to "fixées": x.

"figées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "fixées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "figées" for "fixées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fi.ʒe\ versus \fik.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "figées" or "fixées"?
"fixées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,572 in our French list, against #48,530 for "figées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "figées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fixées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "figées" and "fixées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "figées vs fioles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #94,061 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