mincesvsminimesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,939
“minces” frequency rank
#16,185
“minimes” frequency rank
32124
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minces minimes
Definition Pluriel de mince. Pluriel de minime.

Where the eye mixes minces and minimes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. minces runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against minimes's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
minces
7 ch
minimes

Visual trap between minces and minimes

A purely visual mix-up. minces (\mɛ̃s\) and minimes (\mi.nim\) 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 32124, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minces is recorded at frequency rank #15,939, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɛ̃s\. minimes is at rank #16,185, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mi.nim\.

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 32124, this pair ranks #299,403 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of minces vs minimes

Shared letters: eimns. Private to "minces": c. Private to "minimes": -.

"minces" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "minimes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • minces ← imnces · micnes · mincces · mincess · mincse · minecs · minnces · mminces
  • minimes ← imnimes · miinmes · miniems · minimess · minimmes · minimse · minmies · minnimes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "minces" and "minimes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɛ̃s\ versus \mi.nim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "minces" or "minimes"?
"minces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,939 in our French list, against #16,185 for "minimes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "minces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "minimes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,403 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minces" and "minimes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "minces vs minois". 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 #299,403 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