Which to use
“chain” and “crin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,689
- “chain” frequency rank
- #42,257
- “crin” frequency rank
- 71946
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chain | crin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chaîne. | Poil long et rude qui pousse au cou, à la queue et aux extrémités inférieures des membres de certains animaux et spécialement des chevaux. |
Where the eye mixes chain and crin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chain runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against crin's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between chain and crin
A purely visual mix-up. chain (\t͡ʃeɪn\) and crin (\kʁɛ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chain is recorded at frequency rank #29,689, classified as anoun, pronounced \t͡ʃeɪn\. crin is at rank #42,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ̃\.
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 71946, this pair ranks #45,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chain vs crin
Shared letters: cin. Private to "chain": ah. Private to "crin": r.
"chain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "crin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chain" and "crin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "chain" or "crin" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "chain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chain" and "crin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coon vs crin". 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 #45,721 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.