Which to use
“martinet” and “martins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,898
- “martinet” frequency rank
- #29,436
- “martins” frequency rank
- 62334
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | martinet | martins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce d’oiseau à très longues ailes et à pattes très petites, migrateur. Ressemblant à l'hirondelle, il ne lui est en fait pas du tout apparenté génétiquement : il appartient à la famille des apodidés. | Pluriel de martin. |
Where the eye mixes martinet and martins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. martinet runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against martins's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: martinet vs martins
A purely visual mix-up. martinet (\maʁ.ti.nɛ\) and martins (\maʁ.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 62334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
martinet is recorded at frequency rank #32,898, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ti.nɛ\. martins is at rank #29,436, tagged as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.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 62334, this pair ranks #87,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of martinet vs martins
Shared letters: aimnrt. Private to "martinet": e. Private to "martins": s.
"martinet" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "martins" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "martinet" and "martins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "martinet" vs "martins" - which ranks higher?
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 "martinet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "martins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "martinet" and "martins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Martigny vs martins". 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 #87,681 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.