freezevsfrisesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,517
“freeze” frequency rank
#46,777
“frises” frequency rank
82294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature freeze frises
Definition Interruption des réactions d’un programme aux activités de l’utilisateur. Pluriel de frise.

Same sound, different letters: freeze vs frises

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

6 ch
freeze
6 ch
frises

Ear matches; page differs - freeze and frises

This is the hard kind. freeze and frises are pronounced identically (\fʁiz\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

freeze is recorded at frequency rank #35,517, classified as anoun, pronounced \fʁiz\. frises is at rank #46,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁiz\.

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 82294, this pair ranks #17,022 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of freeze vs frises

Shared letters: efr. Private to "freeze": z. Private to "frises": is.

"freeze" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "frises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • freezefereze · ffreeze · freeez · freezze · freze · frezee · frreeze · rfeeze
  • frisesffrises · firses · frisess · frisses · frrises · frsies · rfises

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "freeze" and "frises" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fʁiz\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "freeze" or "frises" show up more?
"freeze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,517 in our French list, against #46,777 for "frises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "freeze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,022 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "freeze" and "frises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs frises". 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 #17,022 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