Which to use
“fragile” and “frigide” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,134
- “fragile” frequency rank
- #42,353
- “frigide” frequency rank
- 47487
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fragile | frigide |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui se rompt ou se brise facilement. | Se dit d’une personne qui n’éprouve pas de désir ou de plaisir sexuels lors des relations sexuelles. |
Where the eye mixes fragile and frigide
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fragile and frigide follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fragile and frigide
A purely visual mix-up. fragile (\fʁa.ʒil\) and frigide (\fʁi.ʒid\) 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 47487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fragile is recorded at frequency rank #5,134, classified as anadj, pronounced \fʁa.ʒil\. frigide is at rank #42,353, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fʁi.ʒid\.
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 47487, this pair ranks #186,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fragile vs frigide
Shared letters: efgir. Private to "fragile": al. Private to "frigide": d.
"fragile" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "frigide" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fragile" for "frigide" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fragile" vs "frigide" - which ranks higher?
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 "fragile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frigide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #186,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fragile" and "frigide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fragile vs fragilise". 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 #186,561 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.