Which to use
“pins” and “poings” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,922
- “pins” frequency rank
- #15,210
- “poings” frequency rank
- 26132
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pins | poings |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pin. | Pluriel de poing. |
Where the eye mixes pins and poings
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pins runs 4 letters (CVCC) against poings's 6 (CVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pins with poings
A purely visual mix-up. pins (\pɛ̃\) and poings (\pwɛ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pins is recorded at frequency rank #10,922, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃\. poings is at rank #15,210, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃\.
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 26132, this pair ranks #336,932 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pins vs poings
Shared letters: inps. Private to "pins": -. Private to "poings": go.
"pins" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "poings" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pins" and "poings" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pins" or "poings" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poings" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #336,932 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pins" and "poings" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peins vs poings". 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 #336,932 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.