Which to use
“bazin” and “blain” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,071
- “bazin” frequency rank
- #40,141
- “blain” frequency rank
- 68212
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bazin | blain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante de basin. | (Loire-Inférieure) Bateau plat très allongé, avec voile à livarde, qui naviguait sur les tourbières et qui pouvait porter jusqu’à 15 000 mottes de tourbe. Les plus grands avaient deux mâts. |
Where the eye mixes bazin and blain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bazin (CVCVC) and blain (CCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: bazin vs blain
A purely visual mix-up. bazin (\ba.zɛ̃\) and blain (\blɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bazin is recorded at frequency rank #28,071, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.zɛ̃\. blain is at rank #40,141, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blɛ̃\.
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 68212, this pair ranks #60,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bazin vs blain
Shared letters: abin. Private to "bazin": z. Private to "blain": l.
"bazin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "blain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bazin" for "blain" ever safe?
Frequency check: "bazin" vs "blain" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bazin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "blain" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #60,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bazin" and "blain" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "begin vs blain". 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 #60,083 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.