Which to use
“intestinal” and “intestines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,560
- “intestinal” frequency rank
- #47,399
- “intestines” frequency rank
- 78959
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intestinal | intestines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui appartient ou qui a rapport aux intestins. | Féminin pluriel de intestin. |
Where the eye mixes intestinal and intestines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. intestinal and intestines follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses intestinal with intestines
A purely visual mix-up. intestinal (\ɛ̃.tɛs.ti.nal\) and intestines (\ɛ̃.tɛs.tin\) 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 78959, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intestinal is recorded at frequency rank #31,560, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛs.ti.nal\. intestines is at rank #47,399, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛs.tin\.
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 78959, this pair ranks #24,419 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of intestinal vs intestines
Shared letters: einst. Private to "intestinal": al. Private to "intestines": -.
"intestinal" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC · "intestines" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- intestinal ← inetstinal · inntestinal · intesitnal · intesstinal · intestianl · intestinall · intestinla · intestinnal
- intestines ← inetstines · inntestines · intesitnes · intesstines · intestiens · intestiness · intestinnes · intestinse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "intestinal" and "intestines" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "intestinal" or "intestines"?
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 "intestinal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intestines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #24,419 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "intestinal" and "intestines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intestinales vs intestines". 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 #24,419 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.