Which to use
“silex” and “sires” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,854
- “silex” frequency rank
- #48,797
- “sires” frequency rank
- 69651
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | silex | sires |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Roche chimique siliceuse très dure se présentant sous forme de nodules de taille variable à la surface ou dans les formations calcaires et constituée de calcédoine presque pure et d’impuretés telles que de l'eau ou des oxydes, ces derniers influant sur sa couleur. | Pluriel de sire. |
Where the eye mixes silex and sires
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. silex and sires follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between silex and sires
A purely visual mix-up. silex (\si.lɛks\) and sires (\siʁ\) 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 69651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
silex is recorded at frequency rank #20,854, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.lɛks\. sires is at rank #48,797, tagged as anoun, pronounced \siʁ\.
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 69651, this pair ranks #54,337 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of silex vs sires
Shared letters: eis. Private to "silex": lx. Private to "sires": r.
"silex" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "sires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "silex" and "sires" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "silex" or "sires" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "silex" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,337 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "silex" and "sires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sires vs sofres". 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 #54,337 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.