Which to use
“pincer” and “piocher” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,739
- “pincer” frequency rank
- #33,834
- “piocher” frequency rank
- 64573
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pincer | piocher |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Serrer fortement avec une pince, avec des tenailles ou autres instruments semblables. | Fouir, remuer avec une pioche. |
Where the eye mixes pincer and piocher
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pincer runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against piocher's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pincer and piocher
A purely visual mix-up. pincer (\pɛ̃.se\) and piocher (\pjɔ.ʃe\) 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 64573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pincer is recorded at frequency rank #30,739, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛ̃.se\. piocher is at rank #33,834, tagged as averb, pronounced \pjɔ.ʃe\.
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 64573, this pair ranks #76,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pincer vs piocher
Shared letters: ceipr. Private to "pincer": n. Private to "piocher": ho.
"pincer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "piocher" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pincer" for "piocher" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pincer" vs "piocher" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pincer" and "piocher" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pincer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piocher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #76,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pincer" and "piocher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pichet vs piocher". 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 #76,400 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.