peintsvspointusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,755
“peints” frequency rank
#25,768
“pointus” frequency rank
40523
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peints pointus
Definition Masculin pluriel de peint. Masculin pluriel de pointu.

Where the eye mixes peints and pointus

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

6 ch
peints
7 ch
pointus

Look-alike desk: peints vs pointus

A purely visual mix-up. peints (\pɛ̃\) and pointus (\pwɛ̃.ty\) 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 40523, 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\. pointus is at rank #25,768, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.ty\.

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 40523, this pair ranks #239,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of peints vs pointus

Shared letters: inpst. Private to "peints": e. Private to "pointus": ou.

"peints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "pointus" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peintsepints · peinnts · peinst · peintss · peintts · peitns · penits · pients
  • pointusopintus · piontus · poinntus · pointsu · pointtus · pointuss · poinuts · poitnus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peints" for "pointus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛ̃\ versus \pwɛ̃.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "peints" or "pointus"?
"peints" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,755 in our French list, against #25,768 for "pointus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "peints" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pointus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #239,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peints" and "pointus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pintes vs pointus". 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 #239,842 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