Which to use
“spirale” and “spire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,307
- “spirale” frequency rank
- #36,164
- “spire” frequency rank
- 47471
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spirale | spire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Courbe plane qui s’écarte toujours de plus en plus du point autour duquel elle fait une infinité de révolutions. | Le tour d’une spirale. |
Where the eye mixes spirale and spire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between spirale and spire
A purely visual mix-up. spirale (\spi.ʁal\) and spire (\spiʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spirale is recorded at frequency rank #11,307, classified as anoun, pronounced \spi.ʁal\. spire is at rank #36,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spiʁ\.
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 47471, this pair ranks #186,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spirale vs spire
Shared letters: eiprs. Private to "spirale": al. Private to "spire": -.
"spirale" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "spire" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "spirale" and "spire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "spirale" vs "spire" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "spirale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #186,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spirale" and "spire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spi vs spire". 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 #186,666 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.