écranvsécrinConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,616
“écran” frequency rank
#28,024
“écrin” frequency rank
29640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écran écrin
Definition Tableau sur lequel on fait projeter l’image d’un objet, en particulier la surface blanche sur laquelle on projette les films de cinéma. Petit coffret ou étui où l’on met des bagues, des pierreries et des objets précieux.

Where the eye mixes écran and écrin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
écran
5 ch
écrin

Look-alike desk: écran vs écrin

A purely visual mix-up. écran (\e.kʁɑ̃\) and écrin (\e.kʁɛ̃\) 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 a single letter - a in “écran” becomes i in “écrin”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écran is recorded at frequency rank #1,616, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁɑ̃\. écrin is at rank #28,024, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.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 29640, this pair ranks #315,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écran vs écrin

Shared letters: cnré. Private to "écran": a. Private to "écrin": i.

"écran" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "écrin" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écran" for "écrin" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁɑ̃\ versus \e.kʁɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "écran" or "écrin"?
"écran" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,616 in our French list, against #28,024 for "écrin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "écran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écrin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écran" and "écrin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écria vs écrin". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #315,413 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