Which to use
“feint” and “freins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,489
- “feint” frequency rank
- #10,708
- “freins” frequency rank
- 42197
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | feint | freins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Peinture qui imite le marbre. | Pluriel de frein. |
Where the eye mixes feint and freins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. feint runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against freins's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: feint vs freins
A purely visual mix-up. feint (\fɛ̃\) and freins (\fʁɛ̃\) 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 42197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
feint is recorded at frequency rank #31,489, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛ̃\. freins is at rank #10,708, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁɛ̃\.
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 42197, this pair ranks #227,464 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of feint vs freins
Shared letters: efin. Private to "feint": t. Private to "freins": rs.
"feint" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "freins" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "feint" for "freins" ever safe?
Which is more common, "feint" or "freins"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "feint" and "freins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "feint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "freins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #227,464 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "feint" and "freins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feint vs foins". 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 #227,464 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.