singevsSongsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,628
“singe” frequency rank
#38,540
“Songs” frequency rank
46168
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature singe Songs
Definition Mammifère de l’ordre des Primates, hors l’Homme, hors le lémurien. Génitif singulier de Song.

Where the eye mixes singe and Songs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. singe (CVCCV) and Songs (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
singe
5 ch
Songs

Why the eye confuses singe with Songs

A purely visual mix-up. singe (\sɛ̃ʒ\) and Songs (\zɔŋs\) 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 46168, 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\. Songs is at rank #38,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced \zɔŋs\.

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 46168, this pair ranks #197,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of singe vs Songs

Shared letters: gns. Private to "singe": ei. Private to "Songs": o.

"singe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Songs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singe ← isnge · sineg · singge · sinnge · snige · ssinge
  • Songs ← osngs · snogs · sogns · songgs · songss · sonngs · sonsg · ssongs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "singe" for "Songs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\sɛ̃ʒ\ versus \zɔŋs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "singe" vs "Songs" - which ranks higher?
"singe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,628 in our French list, against #38,540 for "Songs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "singe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Songs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #197,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "singe" and "Songs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "solis vs Songs". 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 #197,064 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