chicsvsclinsTell them apart

Quick tell: chics is a adjective, clins is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chics” is an adjective and “clins” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,279
“chics” frequency rank
#29,695
“clins” frequency rank
58974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chics clins
Definition Pluriel de chic. Pluriel de clin.

Where the eye mixes chics and clins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chics
5 ch
clins

Look-alike desk: chics vs clins

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chics is \ʃik\ while clins is \klɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chics is recorded at frequency rank #29,279, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃik\. clins is at rank #29,695, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klɛ̃\.

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 58974, this pair ranks #105,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chics vs clins

Shared letters: cis. Private to "chics": h. Private to "clins": ln.

"chics" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "clins" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chicscchics · chcis · chhics · chiccs · chicss · chisc · cihcs · hcics
  • clinscclins · cilns · clinns · clinss · clisn · cllins · clnis · lcins

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chics" and "clins" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chics" is an adjective and "clins" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "chics" or "clins" show up more?
"chics" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,279 in our French list, against #29,695 for "clins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chics" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #105,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chics" and "clins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chichis vs chics". 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 #105,818 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