liturgievsliturgiqueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: liturgie is a noun, liturgique is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“liturgie” is a noun and “liturgique” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,245
“liturgie” frequency rank
#25,385
“liturgique” frequency rank
43630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature liturgie liturgique
Definition Ensemble des cérémonies et des prières qui constituent le service divin. Relatif à la liturgie.

Where the eye mixes liturgie and liturgique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. liturgie runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against liturgique's 10 (CVCVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
liturgie
10 ch
liturgique

Why the eye confuses liturgie with liturgique

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: liturgie is \li.tyʁ.ʒi\ while liturgique is \li.tyʁ.ʒik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

liturgie is recorded at frequency rank #18,245, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.tyʁ.ʒi\. liturgique is at rank #25,385, tagged as anadj, pronounced \li.tyʁ.ʒik\.

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 43630, this pair ranks #216,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of liturgie vs liturgique

Shared letters: egilrtu. Private to "liturgie": -. Private to "liturgique": q.

"liturgie" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "liturgique" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liturgie ← ilturgie · litrugie · litturgie · litugrie · liturgei · liturggie · liturige · liturrgie
  • liturgique ← ilturgique · litrugique · litturgique · litugrique · liturggique · liturgiqeu · liturgiqque · liturgiuqe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "liturgie" for "liturgique" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "liturgie" is a noun and "liturgique" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "liturgie" or "liturgique" show up more?
"liturgie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,245 in our French list, against #25,385 for "liturgique". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "liturgie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "liturgique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "liturgie" and "liturgique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "literie vs liturgie". 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 #216,593 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