intestinalvsintestinsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,560
“intestinal” frequency rank
#23,256
“intestins” frequency rank
54816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intestinal intestins
Definition Qui appartient ou qui a rapport aux intestins. Masculin pluriel de intestin.

Where the eye mixes intestinal and intestins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. intestinal runs 10 letters (VCCVCCVCVC) against intestins's 9 (VCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
intestinal
9 ch
intestins

Visual trap between intestinal and intestins

A purely visual mix-up. intestinal (\ɛ̃.tɛs.ti.nal\) and intestins (\ɛ̃.tɛs.tɛ̃\) 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 54816, 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\. intestins is at rank #23,256, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛs.tɛ̃\.

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 54816, this pair ranks #131,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of intestinal vs intestins

Shared letters: einst. Private to "intestinal": al. Private to "intestins": -.

"intestinal" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC  ·  "intestins" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intestinal ← inetstinal · inntestinal · intesitnal · intesstinal · intestianl · intestinall · intestinla · intestinnal
  • intestins ← inetstins · inntestins · intesitns · intesstins · intestinns · intestinss · intestisn · intestnis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "intestinal" for "intestins" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɛs.ti.nal\ versus \ɛ̃.tɛs.tɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "intestinal" vs "intestins" - which ranks higher?
"intestins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,256 in our French list, against #31,560 for "intestinal". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intestinal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intestins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intestinal" and "intestins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intestinal 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 #131,475 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