Which to use
“silex” and “smiley” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,854
- “silex” frequency rank
- #24,036
- “smiley” frequency rank
- 44890
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | silex | smiley |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Représentation graphique d’un visage humain souriant, le plus souvent coloré en jaune. |
Where the eye mixes silex and smiley
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. silex runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against smiley's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses silex with smiley
A purely visual mix-up. silex (\si.lɛks\) and smiley (\smaj.lɛ\) 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 44890, 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\. smiley is at rank #24,036, tagged as anoun, pronounced \smaj.lɛ\.
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 44890, this pair ranks #207,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of silex vs smiley
Shared letters: eils. Private to "silex": x. Private to "smiley": my.
"silex" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "smiley" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "silex" for "smiley" ever safe?
Which is more common, "silex" or "smiley"?
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 "silex" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "smiley" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #207,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "silex" and "smiley" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "silex vs sires". 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 #207,037 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.