poivspointWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,426
“poi” frequency rank
#217
“point” frequency rank
40643
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poi point
Definition Plat polynésien de consistance pâteuse à semi-fluide, mélange de plusieurs fruits ou légumes. Action de piquer dans un tissu avec une aiguille enfilée ou résultat de cette action, piqûre.

Where the eye mixes poi and point

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
poi
5 ch
point

Visual trap between poi and point

A purely visual mix-up. poi (\pɔj\) and point (\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 “point”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40643, 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\. point is at rank #217, 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 40643, this pair ranks #239,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poi vs point

Shared letters: iop. Private to "poi": -. Private to "point": nt.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pointopint · piont · poinnt · pointt · poitn · ponit · ppoint

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poi" for "point" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɔj\ versus \pwɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "poi" or "point" show up more?
"point" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #217 in our French list, against #40,426 for "poi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "poi" and "point" 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 "point" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #239,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poi" and "point" 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 #239,034 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