coïtvscrinWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,723
“coït” frequency rank
#42,257
“crin” frequency rank
83980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coït crin
Definition Accouplement sexuel. 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 coït and crin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. coït (CVCC) and crin (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
coït
4 ch
crin

Why the eye confuses coït with crin

A purely visual mix-up. coït (\kɔ.it\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83980, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coït is recorded at frequency rank #41,723, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.it\. 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 83980, this pair ranks #13,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coït vs crin

Shared letters: c. Private to "coït": otï. Private to "crin": inr.

"coït" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "crin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crin ← ccrin · cirn · crinn · crni · crrin · rcin

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coït" and "crin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.it\ versus \kʁɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coït" vs "crin" - which ranks higher?
"coït" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,723 in our French list, against #42,257 for "crin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coït" 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 #13,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coït" 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 #13,821 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