tiercévstiréWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,071
“tiercé” frequency rank
#2,548
“tiré” frequency rank
49619
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tiercé tiré
Definition Haussé d’un tiers, en parlant d’un prix. Abattu, amaigri, qui témoigne d’usure, de fatigue (en parlant du visage, des traits).

Where the eye mixes tiercé and tiré

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

6 ch
tiercé
4 ch
tiré

Why the eye confuses tiercé with tiré

A purely visual mix-up. tiercé (\tjɛʁ.se\) and tiré (\ti.ʁe\) 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 49619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tiercé is recorded at frequency rank #47,071, classified as anadj, pronounced \tjɛʁ.se\. tiré is at rank #2,548, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ti.ʁe\.

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 49619, this pair ranks #169,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tiercé vs tiré

Shared letters: irté. Private to "tiercé": ce. Private to "tiré": -.

"tiercé" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "tiré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tiercé" for "tiré" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tjɛʁ.se\ versus \ti.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tiercé" vs "tiré" - which ranks higher?
"tiré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,548 in our French list, against #47,071 for "tiercé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tiercé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tiré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tiercé" and "tiré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tice vs tiercé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #169,176 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