bassevsbassineWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,162
“basse” frequency rank
#33,566
“bassine” frequency rank
35728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature basse bassine
Definition Ligne mélodique qui contient les notes les plus graves. Sorte de bassin en métal, large et profond dont on se sert pour y faire chauffer, bouillir, fondre, cuire, etc., diverses substances.

Where the eye mixes basse and bassine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. basse runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against bassine's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
basse
7 ch
bassine

Why the eye confuses basse with bassine

A purely visual mix-up. basse (\bɑs\) and bassine (\ba.sin\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

basse is recorded at frequency rank #2,162, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑs\. bassine is at rank #33,566, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.sin\.

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 35728, this pair ranks #274,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of basse vs bassine

Shared letters: abes. Private to "basse": -. Private to "bassine": in.

"basse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bassine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • basse ← absse · bbasse · bsase
  • bassine ← abssine · basine · basisne · bassien · bassinne · bassnie · bbassine · bsasine

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "basse" and "bassine" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bɑs\ versus \ba.sin\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "basse" or "bassine" show up more?
"basse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,162 in our French list, against #33,566 for "bassine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "basse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bassine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "basse" and "bassine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bashing vs bassine". 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 #274,665 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