Which to use
“flèche” and “friche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,828
- “flèche” frequency rank
- #26,735
- “friche” frequency rank
- 33563
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flèche | friche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Trait qu’on lance avec un arc ou une arbalète. | Terrain inculte, soit qu’on ne l’ait jamais cultivé, soit que la culture en ait été interrompue. |
Where the eye mixes flèche and friche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. flèche and friche follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: flèche vs friche
A purely visual mix-up. flèche (\flɛʃ\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33563, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flèche is recorded at frequency rank #6,828, classified as anoun, pronounced \flɛʃ\. 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 33563, this pair ranks #289,783 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of flèche vs friche
Shared letters: cefh. Private to "flèche": lè. Private to "friche": ir.
"flèche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "friche" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- friche ← ffriche · firche · frcihe · fricche · friceh · frichhe · frihce · frriche
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "flèche" and "friche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "flèche" vs "friche" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "flèche" 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 #289,783 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flèche" 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 #289,783 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.