Which to use
“passible” and “possible” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,506
- “passible” frequency rank
- #349
- “possible” frequency rank
- 17855
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passible | possible |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui peut subir, qui a mérité de subir une peine. | Qui peut être. |
Where the eye mixes passible and possible
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. passible and possible follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between passible and possible
A purely visual mix-up. passible (\pa.sibl\) and possible (\pɔ.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 - a in “passible” becomes o in “possible”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passible is recorded at frequency rank #17,506, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.sibl\. possible is at rank #349, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.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 17855, this pair ranks #381,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passible vs possible
Shared letters: beilps. Private to "passible": a. Private to "possible": o.
"passible" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "possible" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "passible" and "possible" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "passible" or "possible"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "passible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "possible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #381,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passible" and "possible" 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 #381,134 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.