poidsvsportsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,071
“poids” frequency rank
#6,642
“ports” frequency rank
7713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poids ports
Definition Force exercée par la pesanteur ; force qui attire les objets vers le sol. Pluriel de port.

Where the eye mixes poids and ports

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

5 ch
poids
5 ch
ports

Visual trap between poids and ports

A purely visual mix-up. poids (\pwa\) and ports (\pɔʁ\) 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 7713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poids is recorded at frequency rank #1,071, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa\. ports is at rank #6,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ\.

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 7713, this pair ranks #422,348 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of poids vs ports

Shared letters: ops. Private to "poids": di. Private to "ports": rt.

"poids" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "ports" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poidsopids · piods · podis · poidds · poidss · poisd · ppoids
  • portsoprts · porrts · porst · portss · portts · potrs · pports · prots

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poids" and "ports" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pwa\ versus \pɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poids" vs "ports" - which ranks higher?
"poids" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,071 in our French list, against #6,642 for "ports". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poids" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ports" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,348 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poids" and "ports" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perfs vs ports". 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 #422,348 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