tiquevsturqueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,896
“tique” frequency rank
#8,051
“turque” frequency rank
34947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tique turque
Definition Arachnide acarien ectoparasite, qui s’attache à la peau des chiens, des bœufs, des chats, des humains, des oiseaux ou des reptiles, se nourrissant de leur sang grâce à un rostre. Brebis de plus d'un an, mais qui n'a pas encore eu d'agneau.

Where the eye mixes tique and turque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tique
6 ch
turque

Why the eye confuses tique with turque

A purely visual mix-up. tique (\tik\) and turque (\tyʁk\) 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 34947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tique is recorded at frequency rank #26,896, classified as anoun, pronounced \tik\. turque is at rank #8,051, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tyʁk\.

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 34947, this pair ranks #280,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tique vs turque

Shared letters: eqtu. Private to "tique": i. Private to "turque": r.

"tique" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "turque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tiqueitque · tiqeu · tiqque · tiuqe · tqiue · ttique
  • turquetruque · tturque · tuqrue · turqeu · turqque · turrque · turuqe · utrque

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tique" for "turque" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tik\ versus \tyʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tique" or "turque"?
"turque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,051 in our French list, against #26,896 for "tique". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #280,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tique" and "turque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ténue vs tique". 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 #280,254 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