micavsmicroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,011
“mica” frequency rank
#2,683
“micro” frequency rank
45694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mica micro
Definition Minéral du groupe des silicates, sous groupe des phyllosilicates, comprenant de nombreuses espèces. Microphone.

Where the eye mixes mica and micro

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

4 ch
mica
5 ch
micro

Look-alike desk: mica vs micro

A purely visual mix-up. mica (\mi.ka\) and micro (\mi.kʁo\) 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 45694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mica is recorded at frequency rank #43,011, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.ka\. micro is at rank #2,683, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.kʁo\.

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 45694, this pair ranks #200,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mica vs micro

Shared letters: cim. Private to "mica": a. Private to "micro": or.

"mica" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "micro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • micaimca · mcia · miac · micca · mmica
  • microimcro · mciro · miccro · micor · micrro · mirco · mmicro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mica" and "micro" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mi.ka\ versus \mi.kʁo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mica" or "micro"?
"micro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,683 in our French list, against #43,011 for "mica". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "mica" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "micro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mica" and "micro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mica vs mito". 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 #200,754 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