Which to use
“coiffe” is a noun and “coince” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,964
- “coiffe” frequency rank
- #25,932
- “coince” frequency rank
- 44896
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coiffe | coince |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Couvre-chef destiné à couvrir la tête des femmes. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe coincer. |
Where the eye mixes coiffe and coince
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. coiffe and coince follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: coiffe vs coince
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coiffe is \kwaf\ while coince is \kwɛ̃s\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coiffe is recorded at frequency rank #18,964, classified as anoun, pronounced \kwaf\. coince is at rank #25,932, tagged as averb, pronounced \kwɛ̃s\.
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 44896, this pair ranks #206,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of coiffe vs coince
Shared letters: ceio. Private to "coiffe": f. Private to "coince": n.
"coiffe" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "coince" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coiffe" and "coince" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "coiffe" or "coince"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "coiffe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coince" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #206,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coiffe" and "coince" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coince vs conde". 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 #206,985 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.