Which to use
“chin” and “clins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,520
- “chin” frequency rank
- #29,695
- “clins” frequency rank
- 60215
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chin | clins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de la treizième lettre de l’alphabet arabe (\ʃ\ Isolée ﺵ, initiale ﺷ, médiane ﺸ, finale ﺶ). | Pluriel de clin. |
Where the eye mixes chin and clins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chin runs 4 letters (CCVC) against clins's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between chin and clins
A purely visual mix-up. chin (\ʃin\) and clins (\klɛ̃\) 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 60215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chin is recorded at frequency rank #30,520, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃin\. 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 60215, this pair ranks #98,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chin vs clins
Shared letters: cin. Private to "chin": h. Private to "clins": ls.
"chin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "clins" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chin" for "clins" ever safe?
Which is more common, "chin" or "clins"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "chin" and "clins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chin" 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 #98,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chin" and "clins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chin vs coon". 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 #98,821 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.