Which to use
“peintre” is a noun and “poindre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,952
- “peintre” frequency rank
- #41,458
- “poindre” frequency rank
- 45410
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peintre | poindre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Artiste utilisant la peinture pour son art. | Piquer quelqu'un ou quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes peintre and poindre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. peintre and poindre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses peintre with poindre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peintre is \pɛ̃tʁ\ while poindre is \pwɛ̃dʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peintre is recorded at frequency rank #3,952, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃tʁ\. poindre is at rank #41,458, tagged as averb, pronounced \pwɛ̃dʁ\.
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 45410, this pair ranks #202,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of peintre vs poindre
Shared letters: einpr. Private to "peintre": t. Private to "poindre": do.
"peintre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV · "poindre" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "peintre" and "poindre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "peintre" vs "poindre" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "peintre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poindre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #202,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peintre" and "poindre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poindre vs pondéré". 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 #202,914 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.