Which to use
“peigne” and “poigne” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,363
- “peigne” frequency rank
- #34,255
- “poigne” frequency rank
- 53618
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peigne | poigne |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Instrument de buis, de corne, d’ivoire, de plastique, etc., qui est taillé en forme de dents et qui sert à démêler et à arranger les cheveux et la barbe. | La force du poignet. |
Where the eye mixes peigne and poigne
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. peigne and poigne follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between peigne and poigne
A purely visual mix-up. peigne (\pɛɲ\) and poigne (\pwaɲ\) 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 a single letter - e in “peigne” becomes o in “poigne”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peigne is recorded at frequency rank #19,363, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛɲ\. poigne is at rank #34,255, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwaɲ\.
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 53618, this pair ranks #139,503 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of peigne vs poigne
Shared letters: eginp. Private to "peigne": -. Private to "poigne": o.
"peigne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "poigne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peigne" for "poigne" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "peigne" or "poigne" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "peigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poigne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,503 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peigne" and "poigne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plaigne vs poigne". 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 #139,503 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.