guivsgulfWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,335
“gui” frequency rank
#38,328
“gulf” frequency rank
59663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gui gulf
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. Golfe.

Where the eye mixes gui and gulf

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
gui
4 ch
gulf

Look-alike desk: gui vs gulf

A purely visual mix-up. gui (\ɡi\) and gulf (\ɡʌlf\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59663, 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\. gulf is at rank #38,328, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʌlf\.

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 59663, this pair ranks #101,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gui vs gulf

Shared letters: gu. Private to "gui": i. Private to "gulf": fl.

"gui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "gulf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gulfggulf · gluf · gufl · gulff · gullf · uglf

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gui" and "gulf" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡi\ versus \ɡʌlf\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "gui" or "gulf" show up more?
"gui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,335 in our French list, against #38,328 for "gulf". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "gui" and "gulf" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gulf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gui" and "gulf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "GNL vs gulf". 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 #101,890 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