Which to use
“siècle” and “single” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #533
- “siècle” frequency rank
- #8,310
- “single” frequency rank
- 8843
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | siècle | single |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Période de cent ans. | Cabine ou chambre d’hôtel pour une personne. Dans ce cas, s’utilise au féminin, et s’oppose à double ou twin. |
Where the eye mixes siècle and single
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses siècle with single
A purely visual mix-up. siècle (\sjɛkl\) and single (\siŋ.ɡœl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
siècle is recorded at frequency rank #533, classified as anoun, pronounced \sjɛkl\. single is at rank #8,310, tagged as anoun, pronounced \siŋ.ɡœl\.
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 8843, this pair ranks #418,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of siècle vs single
Shared letters: eils. Private to "siècle": cè. Private to "single": gn.
"siècle" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "single" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- single ← isngle · signle · singel · singgle · singlle · sinlge · sinngle · snigle
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "siècle" for "single" ever safe?
Frequency check: "siècle" vs "single" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "siècle" and "single" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "siècle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "single" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "siècle" and "single" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sigles vs single". 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 #418,681 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.