Which to use
“poignée” and “poignets” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,382
- “poignée” frequency rank
- #18,284
- “poignets” frequency rank
- 23666
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poignée | poignets |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Quantité de matière qu’on peut prendre dans une main. | Pluriel de poignet. |
Where the eye mixes poignée and poignets
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poignée runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against poignets's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: poignée vs poignets
A purely visual mix-up. poignée (\pwa.ɲe\) and poignets (\pwa.ɲɛ\) 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 23666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poignée is recorded at frequency rank #5,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa.ɲe\. poignets is at rank #18,284, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwa.ɲɛ\.
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 23666, this pair ranks #351,135 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of poignée vs poignets
Shared letters: eginop. Private to "poignée": é. Private to "poignets": st.
"poignée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "poignets" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- poignets ← opignets · piognets · poginets · poigents · poiggnets · poignest · poignetss · poignetts
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poignée" for "poignets" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "poignée" or "poignets" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "poignée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poignets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,135 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poignée" and "poignets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poigne vs poignets". 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 #351,135 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.