écrinvsécriteTell them apart

Quick tell: écrin is a noun, écrite is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“écrin” is a noun and “écrite” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,024
“écrin” frequency rank
#3,724
“écrite” frequency rank
31748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrin écrite
Definition Petit coffret ou étui où l’on met des bagues, des pierreries et des objets précieux. Féminin singulier de écrit.

Where the eye mixes écrin and écrite

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

5 ch
écrin
6 ch
écrite

Look-alike desk: écrin vs écrite

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écrin is \e.kʁɛ̃\ while écrite is \e.kʁit\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrin is recorded at frequency rank #28,024, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁɛ̃\. écrite is at rank #3,724, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.kʁit\.

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 31748, this pair ranks #301,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écrin vs écrite

Shared letters: ciré. Private to "écrin": n. Private to "écrite": et.

"écrin" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "écrite" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écrin" for "écrite" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écrin" is a noun and "écrite" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "écrin" vs "écrite" - which ranks higher?
"écrite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,724 in our French list, against #28,024 for "écrin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écrin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écrite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écrin" and "écrite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écria vs écrin". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #301,816 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