peintsvspleinsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,755
“peints” frequency rank
#3,632
“pleins” frequency rank
18387
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peints pleins
Definition Masculin pluriel de peint. Masculin pluriel de plein.

Where the eye mixes peints and pleins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
peints
6 ch
pleins

Look-alike desk: peints vs pleins

A purely visual mix-up. peints (\pɛ̃\) and pleins (\plɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peints is recorded at frequency rank #14,755, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛ̃\. pleins is at rank #3,632, tagged as anadj, pronounced \plɛ̃\.

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 18387, this pair ranks #378,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of peints vs pleins

Shared letters: einps. Private to "peints": t. Private to "pleins": l.

"peints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "pleins" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peintsepints · peinnts · peinst · peintss · peintts · peitns · penits · pients
  • pleinslpeins · pelins · pleinns · pleinss · pleisn · plenis · pliens · plleins

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peints" and "pleins" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛ̃\ versus \plɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "peints" or "pleins"?
"pleins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,632 in our French list, against #14,755 for "peints". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peints" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pleins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #378,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peints" and "pleins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peins vs peints". 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 #378,586 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