clinsvscuirsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,695
“clins” frequency rank
#36,344
“cuirs” frequency rank
66039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clins cuirs
Definition Pluriel de clin. Pluriel de cuir.

Where the eye mixes clins and cuirs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clins (CCVCC) and cuirs (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
clins
5 ch
cuirs

Why the eye confuses clins with cuirs

A purely visual mix-up. clins (\klɛ̃\) and cuirs (\kɥiʁ\) 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 66039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clins is recorded at frequency rank #29,695, classified as anoun, pronounced \klɛ̃\. cuirs is at rank #36,344, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɥiʁ\.

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 66039, this pair ranks #69,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clins vs cuirs

Shared letters: cis. Private to "clins": ln. Private to "cuirs": ru.

"clins" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "cuirs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clins ← cclins · cilns · clinns · clinss · clisn · cllins · clnis · lcins
  • cuirs ← ccuirs · ciurs · cuirrs · cuirss · cuisr · curis · ucirs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clins" and "cuirs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\klɛ̃\ versus \kɥiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clins" vs "cuirs" - which ranks higher?
"clins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,695 in our French list, against #36,344 for "cuirs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cuirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clins" and "cuirs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cuirs". 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 #69,596 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