Which to use
“tonique” and “toxique” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,797
- “tonique” frequency rank
- #9,568
- “toxique” frequency rank
- 31365
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tonique | toxique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui reçoit l’accent. | Qui provoque des effets nocifs sur un organisme vivant, en perturbant ses fonctions biologiques ou en causant des lésions. |
Where the eye mixes tonique and toxique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tonique and toxique follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses tonique with toxique
A purely visual mix-up. tonique (\tɔ.nik\) and toxique (\tɔk.sik\) 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 a single letter - n in “tonique” becomes x in “toxique”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tonique is recorded at frequency rank #21,797, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɔ.nik\. toxique is at rank #9,568, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɔk.sik\.
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 31365, this pair ranks #304,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tonique vs toxique
Shared letters: eioqtu. Private to "tonique": n. Private to "toxique": x.
"tonique" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "toxique" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tonique" and "toxique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "tonique" vs "toxique" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tonique" and "toxique" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tonique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "toxique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tonique" and "toxique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tonique vs trique". 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 #304,250 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.