Which to use
“sire” and “soir” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,914
- “sire” frequency rank
- #268
- “soir” frequency rank
- 10182
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sire | soir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Seigneur. | Déclin du jour, dernières heures de la journée. |
Where the eye mixes sire and soir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sire with soir
A purely visual mix-up. sire (\siʁ\) and soir (\swaʁ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sire is recorded at frequency rank #9,914, classified as anoun, pronounced \siʁ\. soir is at rank #268, tagged as anoun, pronounced \swaʁ\.
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 10182, this pair ranks #413,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sire vs soir
Shared letters: irs. Private to "sire": e. Private to "soir": o.
"sire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "soir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sire" and "soir" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "sire" vs "soir" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #413,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sire" and "soir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sire vs SSR". 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 #413,920 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.