sistervssixteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,012
“sister” frequency rank
#35,729
“sixte” frequency rank
68741
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sister sixte
Definition Sœur (dans un sens moral, et dans un contexte de personnes anglophones). Intervalle de six notes consécutives, y compris les deux extrêmes.

Where the eye mixes sister and sixte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sister runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against sixte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
sister
5 ch
sixte

Visual trap between sister and sixte

A purely visual mix-up. sister (\sis.tœʁ\) and sixte (\sikst\) 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 68741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sister is recorded at frequency rank #33,012, classified as anoun, pronounced \sis.tœʁ\. sixte is at rank #35,729, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sikst\.

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 68741, this pair ranks #57,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sister vs sixte

Shared letters: eist. Private to "sister": r. Private to "sixte": x.

"sister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sixte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sister ← isster · sisetr · sisster · sisterr · sistre · sistter · sitser · ssister
  • sixte ← isxte · sitxe · sixet · sixtte · sixxte · ssixte · sxite

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sister" and "sixte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sis.tœʁ\ versus \sikst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sister" or "sixte"?
"sister" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,012 in our French list, against #35,729 for "sixte". 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 "sister" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sixte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sister" and "sixte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sixte vs Sixtine". 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 #57,903 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