singevssingleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,628
“singe” frequency rank
#8,310
“single” frequency rank
15938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature singe single
Definition Mammifère de l’ordre des Primates, hors l’Homme, hors le lémurien. 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 singe and single

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
singe
6 ch
single

Why the eye confuses singe with single

A purely visual mix-up. singe (\sɛ̃ʒ\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

singe is recorded at frequency rank #7,628, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛ̃ʒ\. 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 15938, this pair ranks #390,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of singe vs single

Shared letters: egins. Private to "singe": -. Private to "single": l.

"singe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "single" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singeisnge · sineg · singge · sinnge · snige · ssinge
  • singleisngle · signle · singel · singgle · singlle · sinlge · sinngle · snigle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "singe" for "single" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ̃ʒ\ versus \siŋ.ɡœl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "singe" vs "single" - which ranks higher?
"singe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,628 in our French list, against #8,310 for "single". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "singe" 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 #390,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "singe" and "single" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sind vs singe". 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 #390,159 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