teignevstigeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,693
“teigne” frequency rank
#10,253
“tige” frequency rank
53946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teigne tige
Definition Dermatose du cuir chevelu d'origine cryptogamique ^([1]). Elle engendre des écailles ou des croûtes plus ou moins épaisses et de l'alopécie. Organe végétal, généralement en forme d’axe, reliant les racines et les feuilles, et assurant la conduction de la sève brute et de la sève élaborée. Il peut être aérien ou souterrain, et porter des branches, des fleurs ou des fruits.

Where the eye mixes teigne and tige

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

6 ch
teigne
4 ch
tige

Visual trap between teigne and tige

A purely visual mix-up. teigne (\tɛɲ\) and tige (\tiʒ\) 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 53946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

teigne is recorded at frequency rank #43,693, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛɲ\. tige is at rank #10,253, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tiʒ\.

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 53946, this pair ranks #137,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of teigne vs tige

Shared letters: egit. Private to "teigne": n. Private to "tige": -.

"teigne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "tige" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teigne ← etigne · tegine · teigen · teiggne · teignne · teinge · tiegne · tteigne
  • tige ← itge · tgie · tieg · tigge · ttige

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "teigne" and "tige" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tɛɲ\ versus \tiʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "teigne" vs "tige" - which ranks higher?
"tige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,253 in our French list, against #43,693 for "teigne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "teigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tige" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "teigne" and "tige" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teigne vs Tignes". 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 #137,390 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