poinçon
[pwɛ̃.sɔ̃]
The verdict
“poinçon” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #39,941 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #39,941
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) — Instrument métallique, généralement d’acier, qui a une pointe pour percer.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | poinçon |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [pwɛ̃.sɔ̃] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #39,941 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “poinçon” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for poinçon is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [pwɛ̃.sɔ̃]. Corpus data places it at rank #39,941 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for poinçon, with forms such as "opinçon", "pionçon", and "poincon". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "poison", "ponton", "poisson", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is poinçon, spelled P-O-I-N-Ç-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Instrument métallique, généralement d’acier, qui a une pointe pour percer.
- 2Outil qui découpe, par pression transversale, au milieu d'une feuille de matériau solide, une partie à silhouette déterminée.
- 3Morceau d’acier gravé en relief, avec lequel on frappe les coins des monnaies et des médailles.
- 4Instrument dont on se sert pour marquer les ouvrages d’or ou d’argent.
- 5Morceau d’acier où les lettres sont gravées en relief et avec lequel on frappe les matrices qui servent à fondre les caractères d’imprimerie.
- 6Petite pièce de métal ou partie d’un objet métallique résultant du marquage par un poinçon (l’instrument).
- 7Morceau de bois taillé en pointe, ou armé d’une pointe de fer, dont les maîtres de manège se servaient autrefois pour piquer la croupe des sauteurs qu’ils montaient et pour les exciter à détacher la ruade.
- 8Pièce de bois qui, dans une charpente, s’appuie perpendiculairement sur le milieu de l’entrait et sur le haut de laquelle s’assemblent les arbalétriers.
- 9Arbre vertical sur lequel tourne une machine.
- 10Tonneau contenant environ les deux tiers d'un muid. (Littré).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: opinçon,pionçon,poincon,poinnçon,poinoçn,poinçno,poinçonn,poiçnon,poniçon,ppoinçon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of poinçon - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Edit distance from "poinçon"
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “poinçon, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/poincon
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “poinçon”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-O-I-N-Ç-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [pwɛ̃.sɔ̃] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “poison” - see the side-by-side comparison. poinçon vs poison
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Nearby French words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index: