scivssoliWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,003
“sci” frequency rank
#48,798
“soli” frequency rank
65801
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sci soli
Definition Ski, patin très long, légèrement recourbé en avant, qui sert à glisser sur la neige. Sous le faîtage, espace servant à engranger le foin (fenière) et où l'on peut aussi coucher, en y accédant par une échelle extérieure.

Where the eye mixes sci and soli

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
sci
4 ch
soli

Look-alike desk: sci vs soli

A purely visual mix-up. sci (\ˈʃi\) and soli (\sɔ.lo\) 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 65801, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sci is recorded at frequency rank #17,003, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈʃi\. soli is at rank #48,798, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔ.lo\.

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 65801, this pair ranks #70,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sci vs soli

Shared letters: is. Private to "sci": c. Private to "soli": lo.

"sci" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "soli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soliosli · sloi · soil · solli · ssoli

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sci" for "soli" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈʃi\ versus \sɔ.lo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sci" vs "soli" - which ranks higher?
"sci" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,003 in our French list, against #48,798 for "soli". 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 "sci" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sci" and "soli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soli vs spi". 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 #70,709 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