Which to use
“micro” and “microbe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,683
- “micro” frequency rank
- #40,867
- “microbe” frequency rank
- 43550
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | micro | microbe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Microphone. | Organisme vivant qui ne peut être vu qu’en utilisant un microscope. |
Where the eye mixes micro and microbe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses micro with microbe
A purely visual mix-up. micro (\mi.kʁo\) and microbe (\mi.kʁɔb\) 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) - “micro” sits inside “microbe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
micro is recorded at frequency rank #2,683, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.kʁo\. microbe is at rank #40,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.kʁɔb\.
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 43550, this pair ranks #217,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of micro vs microbe
Shared letters: cimor. Private to "micro": -. Private to "microbe": be.
"micro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "microbe" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "micro" for "microbe" ever safe?
Which is more common, "micro" or "microbe"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "micro" and "microbe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "micro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "microbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #217,210 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "micro" and "microbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "microbe vs microns". 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 #217,210 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.