Which to use
“pincée” and “pioche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,080
- “pincée” frequency rank
- #20,236
- “pioche” frequency rank
- 49316
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pincée | pioche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qu’on peut prendre de certaines choses, en les pinçant entre deux ou trois doigts. | Outil composé d'un fer emmanché, à une pointe d'un côté et un tranchant de l'autre, ou, à deux pointes. |
Where the eye mixes pincée and pioche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pincée (CVCCVV) and pioche (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: pincée vs pioche
A purely visual mix-up. pincée (\pɛ̃.se\) and pioche (\pjɔʃ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pincée is recorded at frequency rank #29,080, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃.se\. pioche is at rank #20,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pjɔʃ\.
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 49316, this pair ranks #171,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pincée vs pioche
Shared letters: ceip. Private to "pincée": né. Private to "pioche": ho.
"pincée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "pioche" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pioche ← ipoche · picohe · piocche · pioceh · piochhe · piohce · poiche · ppioche
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pincée" and "pioche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pincée" or "pioche"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pincée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pioche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pincée" and "pioche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillée vs pincée". 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 #171,691 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.