Which to use
“poigne” and “poire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,255
- “poigne” frequency rank
- #15,720
- “poire” frequency rank
- 49975
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poigne | poire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | La force du poignet. | Fruit à pépin, de saveur agréable, ordinairement de forme oblongue, et qui va en diminuant vers la queue. |
Where the eye mixes poigne and poire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. poigne runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against poire's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses poigne with poire
A purely visual mix-up. poigne (\pwaɲ\) and poire (\pwaʁ\) 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 49975, 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\. poire is at rank #15,720, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwaʁ\.
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 49975, this pair ranks #166,337 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poigne vs poire
Shared letters: eiop. Private to "poigne": gn. Private to "poire": r.
"poigne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "poire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poigne" for "poire" ever safe?
Frequency check: "poigne" vs "poire" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #166,337 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poigne" and "poire" 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 #166,337 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.