patinevspatriceConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,301
“patine” frequency rank
#7,475
“patrice” frequency rank
37776
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patine patrice
Definition Vert-de-gris se formant sur les objets en cuivre ou en bronze. Celui qui était revêtu d’une dignité instituée dans l’empire romain par Constantin.

Where the eye mixes patine and patrice

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

6 ch
patine
7 ch
patrice

Look-alike desk: patine vs patrice

A purely visual mix-up. patine (\pa.tin\) and patrice (\pa.tʁis\) 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 37776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patine is recorded at frequency rank #30,301, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tin\. patrice is at rank #7,475, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.tʁis\.

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 37776, this pair ranks #260,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of patine vs patrice

Shared letters: aeipt. Private to "patine": n. Private to "patrice": cr.

"patine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "patrice" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patineaptine · paitne · patien · patinne · patnie · pattine · ppatine · ptaine
  • patriceaptrice · partice · patirce · patrcie · patricce · patriec · patrrice · pattrice

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "patine" for "patrice" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pa.tin\ versus \pa.tʁis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "patine" vs "patrice" - which ranks higher?
"patrice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,475 in our French list, against #30,301 for "patine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "patine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patrice" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patine" and "patrice" 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 #260,009 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