coquillevscoquineWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,553
“coquille” frequency rank
#13,147
“coquine” frequency rank
24700
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coquille coquine
Definition Enveloppe protectrice, dure et calcaire des œufs et de la plupart des mollusques. Celle qui a un caractère vil, qui est capable de friponneries, de vols, d’actions déshonnêtes.

Where the eye mixes coquille and coquine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. coquille runs 8 letters (CVCVVCCV) against coquine's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
coquille
7 ch
coquine

Look-alike desk: coquille vs coquine

A purely visual mix-up. coquille (\kɔ.kij\) and coquine (\kɔ.kin\) 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 24700, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coquille is recorded at frequency rank #11,553, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.kij\. coquine is at rank #13,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.kin\.

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 24700, this pair ranks #345,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coquille vs coquine

Shared letters: ceioqu. Private to "coquille": l. Private to "coquine": n.

"coquille" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "coquine" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coquille ← ccoquille · coqiulle · coqquille · coquile · coquilel · coqulile · couqille · cqouille
  • coquine ← ccoquine · coqiune · coqquine · coquien · coquinne · coqunie · couqine · cqouine

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coquille" and "coquine" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.kij\ versus \kɔ.kin\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "coquille" or "coquine" show up more?
"coquille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,553 in our French list, against #13,147 for "coquine". 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 "coquille" and "coquine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coquille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coquine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #345,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coquille" and "coquine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocaine vs coquine". 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 #345,112 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