tigrevstiretWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,909
“tigre” frequency rank
#43,185
“tiret” frequency rank
51094
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tigre tiret
Definition Espèce de mammifère carnassier, le plus grand de la famille des félidés, au pelage généralement fauve, rayé de bandes noires transversales. La femelle est la tigresse, le petit le tigreau. Le tigre râle, rauque ou feule. Petit trait (—) qui sert à indiquer un nouvel interlocuteur dans un dialogue, à séparer une phrase ou une partie de phrase comme le font les parenthèses, ou à énumérer des éléments dans une liste.

Where the eye mixes tigre and tiret

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tigre (CVCCV) and tiret (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
tigre
5 ch
tiret

Visual trap between tigre and tiret

A purely visual mix-up. tigre (\tiɡʁ\) and tiret (\ti.ʁɛ\) 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 51094, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tigre is recorded at frequency rank #7,909, classified as anoun, pronounced \tiɡʁ\. tiret is at rank #43,185, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ti.ʁɛ\.

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 51094, this pair ranks #157,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tigre vs tiret

Shared letters: eirt. Private to "tigre": g. Private to "tiret": -.

"tigre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tiret" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tigre ← itgre · tgire · tiggre · tigrre · tirge · ttigre
  • tiret ← itret · tiert · tirett · tirret · triet · ttiret

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tigre" for "tiret" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tiɡʁ\ versus \ti.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tigre" vs "tiret" - which ranks higher?
"tigre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,909 in our French list, against #43,185 for "tiret". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "tigre" and "tiret" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tigre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tiret" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #157,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tigre" and "tiret" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tiret vs titrer". 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 #157,645 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