Which to use
“poigne” and “poignée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,255
- “poigne” frequency rank
- #5,382
- “poignée” frequency rank
- 39637
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poigne | poignée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | La force du poignet. | Quantité de matière qu’on peut prendre dans une main. |
Where the eye mixes poigne and poignée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poigne runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against poignée's 7 (CVVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses poigne with poignée
A purely visual mix-up. poigne (\pwaɲ\) and poignée (\pwa.ɲe\) 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 39637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poigne is recorded at frequency rank #34,255, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwaɲ\. poignée is at rank #5,382, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwa.ɲe\.
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 39637, this pair ranks #246,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poigne vs poignée
Shared letters: eginop. Private to "poigne": -. Private to "poignée": é.
"poigne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "poignée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- poigne ← opigne · piogne · pogine · poigen · poiggne · poignne · poinge · ppoigne
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poigne" and "poignée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "poigne" vs "poignée" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "poigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poignée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #246,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poigne" and "poignée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plaigne vs poigne". 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 #246,497 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.