figéesvsfuméesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,530
“figées” frequency rank
#18,758
“fumées” frequency rank
67288
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature figées fumées
Definition Féminin pluriel de figé. Féminin pluriel de fumé.

Where the eye mixes figées and fumées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. figées and fumées 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
fumées

Why the eye confuses figées with fumées

A purely visual mix-up. figées (\fi.ʒe\) and fumées (\fy.me\) 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 67288, 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\. fumées is at rank #18,758, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fy.me\.

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 67288, this pair ranks #64,058 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of figées vs fumées

Shared letters: efsé. Private to "figées": gi. Private to "fumées": mu.

"figées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "fumées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "figées" and "fumées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fi.ʒe\ versus \fy.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "figées" or "fumées" show up more?
"fumées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,758 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "figées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fumées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,058 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "figées" and "fumées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "figées vs fioles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #64,058 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