guivsgunsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,335
“gui” frequency rank
#29,374
“guns” frequency rank
50709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gui guns
Definition Plante verte hémiparasite et épiphyte à tiges articulées dichotomiques et à baies globuleuses qui croissent sur les branches de certains arbres, grâce à leur suçoir conique (ou haustorium) et dont les graines collantes sont disséminées par divers oiseaux. Pluriel de gun.

Where the eye mixes gui and guns

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
gui
4 ch
guns

Look-alike desk: gui vs guns

A purely visual mix-up. gui (\ɡi\) and guns (\ɡœn\) 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 50709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gui is recorded at frequency rank #21,335, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡi\. guns is at rank #29,374, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡœn\.

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 50709, this pair ranks #160,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gui vs guns

Shared letters: gu. Private to "gui": i. Private to "guns": ns.

"gui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "guns" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gunsgguns · gnus · gunns · gunss · gusn · ugns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gui" for "guns" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡi\ versus \ɡœn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gui" or "guns"?
"gui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,335 in our French list, against #29,374 for "guns". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "gui" and "guns" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gui" and "guns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gods vs guns". 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 #160,560 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