patentevspatineConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,949
“patente” frequency rank
#30,301
“patine” frequency rank
63250
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patente patine
Definition Brevet émanant d’une autorité établissant un droit, un titre ou un privilège. Vert-de-gris se formant sur les objets en cuivre ou en bronze.

Where the eye mixes patente and patine

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

7 ch
patente
6 ch
patine

Look-alike desk: patente vs patine

A purely visual mix-up. patente (\pa.tɑ̃t\) and patine (\pa.tin\) 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 63250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patente is recorded at frequency rank #32,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tɑ̃t\. patine is at rank #30,301, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.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 63250, this pair ranks #82,936 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of patente vs patine

Shared letters: aenpt. Private to "patente": -. Private to "patine": i.

"patente" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "patine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patente ← aptente · paetnte · patenet · patennte · patentte · patetne · patnete · pattente
  • patine ← aptine · paitne · patien · patinne · patnie · pattine · ppatine · ptaine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "patente" and "patine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pa.tɑ̃t\ versus \pa.tin\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "patente" or "patine"?
"patine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,301 in our French list, against #32,949 for "patente". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "patente" and "patine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "patente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #82,936 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patente" and "patine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "patine vs piétiné". 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 #82,936 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