guivsguiseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,335
“gui” frequency rank
#6,197
“guise” frequency rank
27532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gui guise
Definition Plante verte hémiparasite et épiphyte à tiges articulées dichotomiques et à baies globuleuses qui croissent sur les branches de certains arbres, grâce à leur suçoir conique (ou haustorium) et dont les graines collantes sont disséminées par divers oiseaux. Manière, façon, goût, fantaisie.

Where the eye mixes gui and guise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
gui
5 ch
guise

Why the eye confuses gui with guise

A purely visual mix-up. gui (\ɡi\) and guise (\ɡiz\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “gui” sits inside “guise”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gui is recorded at frequency rank #21,335, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡi\. guise is at rank #6,197, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡiz\.

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 27532, this pair ranks #328,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gui vs guise

Shared letters: giu. Private to "gui": -. Private to "guise": es.

"gui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "guise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guisegguise · giuse · guies · guisse · gusie · ugise

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gui" and "guise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡi\ versus \ɡiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gui" vs "guise" - which ranks higher?
"guise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,197 in our French list, against #21,335 for "gui". 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 "gui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #328,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gui" and "guise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gui". 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 #328,367 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