Which to use
“poings” and “pointes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,210
- “poings” frequency rank
- #9,724
- “pointes” frequency rank
- 24934
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poings | pointes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de poing. | Chaussures à pointes. |
Where the eye mixes poings and pointes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poings runs 6 letters (CVVCCC) against pointes's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: poings vs pointes
A purely visual mix-up. poings (\pwɛ̃\) and pointes (\pwɛ̃t\) 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 24934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poings is recorded at frequency rank #15,210, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃\. pointes is at rank #9,724, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃t\.
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 24934, this pair ranks #343,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of poings vs pointes
Shared letters: inops. Private to "poings": g. Private to "pointes": et.
"poings" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC · "pointes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poings" for "pointes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "poings" vs "pointes" - 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 "poings" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pointes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #343,728 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poings" and "pointes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peins vs poings". 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 #343,728 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.