bassvsbassinWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,865
“bass” frequency rank
#3,382
“bassin” frequency rank
25247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bass bassin
Definition Maître, patron, orthographe fautive de baas. Grande cavité osseuse qui forme la base du tronc et sert de point d’attache aux membres inférieurs.

Where the eye mixes bass and bassin

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

4 ch
bass
6 ch
bassin

Look-alike desk: bass vs bassin

A purely visual mix-up. bass (\bas\) and bassin (\ba.sɛ̃\) 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 extra letter(s) - “bass” sits inside “bassin”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bass is recorded at frequency rank #21,865, classified as anoun, pronounced \bas\. bassin is at rank #3,382, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.sɛ̃\.

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 25247, this pair ranks #341,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bass vs bassin

Shared letters: abs. Private to "bass": -. Private to "bassin": in.

"bass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bassin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bass ← abss · bbass · bsas
  • bassin ← abssin · basin · basisn · bassinn · bassni · bbassin · bsasin

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bass" and "bassin" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bas\ versus \ba.sɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bass" or "bassin"?
"bassin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,382 in our French list, against #21,865 for "bass". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bassin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #341,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bass" and "bassin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baissa vs bass". 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 #341,940 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