narinevsnarinesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,481
“narine” frequency rank
#20,206
“narines” frequency rank
62687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature narine narines
Definition Chacune des deux ouvertures du nez par lesquelles l’être humain respire et perçoit les odeurs. Pluriel de narine.

Same sound, different letters: narine vs narines

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
narine
7 ch
narines

Homophone desk: narine vs narines

This is the hard kind. narine and narines are pronounced identically (\na.ʁin\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “narine” sits inside “narines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

narine is recorded at frequency rank #42,481, classified as anoun, pronounced \na.ʁin\. narines is at rank #20,206, tagged as anoun, pronounced \na.ʁin\.

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 62687, this pair ranks #85,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of narine vs narines

Shared letters: aeinr. Private to "narine": -. Private to "narines": s.

"narine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "narines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • narineanrine · nairne · narien · narinne · narnie · narrine · nnarine · nraine
  • narinesanrines · nairnes · nariens · nariness · narinnes · narinse · narnies · narrines

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "narine" and "narines" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\na.ʁin\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "narine" or "narines"?
"narines" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,206 in our French list, against #42,481 for "narine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"narine" and "narines" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "narine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "narines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "narine" and "narines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "naines vs narine". 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 #85,853 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