poivspoingTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,426
“poi” frequency rank
#6,541
“poing” frequency rank
46967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poi poing
Definition Plat polynésien de consistance pâteuse à semi-fluide, mélange de plusieurs fruits ou légumes. Main fermée.

Where the eye mixes poi and poing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. poi runs 3 letters (CVV) against poing's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
poi
5 ch
poing

Why the eye confuses poi with poing

A purely visual mix-up. poi (\pɔj\) and poing (\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 extra letter(s) - “poi” sits inside “poing”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poi is recorded at frequency rank #40,426, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔj\. poing is at rank #6,541, 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 46967, this pair ranks #190,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poi vs poing

Shared letters: iop. Private to "poi": -. Private to "poing": gn.

"poi" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "poing" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poingoping · piong · poign · poingg · poinng · ponig · ppoing

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "poi" and "poing" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɔj\ versus \pwɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poi" vs "poing" - which ranks higher?
"poing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,541 in our French list, against #40,426 for "poi". 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 "poi" and "poing" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,642 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poi" and "poing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs poi". 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 #190,642 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