Which to use
“flint” and “foins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,540
- “flint” frequency rank
- #48,534
- “foins” frequency rank
- 83074
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flint | foins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Verre en cristal servant avec le crown-glass à faire les lentilles achromatiques des microscopes ; il est constitué par trois atomes de quadrisilicate de plomb et deux atomes de quadrisilicate de potasse. | Pluriel de foin. |
Where the eye mixes flint and foins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. flint (CCVCC) and foins (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between flint and foins
A purely visual mix-up. flint (\flint\) and foins (\fwɛ̃\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83074, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flint is recorded at frequency rank #34,540, classified as anoun, pronounced \flint\. foins is at rank #48,534, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fwɛ̃\.
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 83074, this pair ranks #15,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of flint vs foins
Shared letters: fin. Private to "flint": lt. Private to "foins": os.
"flint" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "foins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "flint" and "foins" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "flint" or "foins"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "flint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flint" and "foins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies 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 #15,500 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.