paisiblevspassibleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,043
“paisible” frequency rank
#17,506
“passible” frequency rank
27549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paisible passible
Definition Qui inspire un sentiment de paix, de tranquillité. Qui peut subir, qui a mérité de subir une peine.

Where the eye mixes paisible and passible

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
paisible
8 ch
passible

Visual trap between paisible and passible

A purely visual mix-up. paisible (\pe.zibl\) and passible (\pa.sibl\) 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 a single letter - i in “paisible” becomes s in “passible”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paisible is recorded at frequency rank #10,043, classified as anadj, pronounced \pe.zibl\. passible is at rank #17,506, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.sibl\.

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 27549, this pair ranks #328,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paisible vs passible

Shared letters: abeilps. Private to "paisible": -. Private to "passible": -.

"paisible" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV  ·  "passible" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paisibleapisible · paiisble · paisbile · paisibble · paisibel · paisiblle · paisilbe · paissible
  • passibleapssible · pasible · pasisble · passbile · passibble · passibel · passiblle · passilbe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "paisible" and "passible" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pe.zibl\ versus \pa.sibl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "paisible" vs "passible" - which ranks higher?
"paisible" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,043 in our French list, against #17,506 for "passible". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paisible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "passible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #328,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paisible" and "passible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passable vs passible". 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 #328,260 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