pointéevspointusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,528
“pointée” frequency rank
#25,768
“pointus” frequency rank
58296
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pointée pointus
Definition Féminin singulier de pointé. Masculin pluriel de pointu.

Where the eye mixes pointée and pointus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
pointée
7 ch
pointus

Look-alike desk: pointée vs pointus

A purely visual mix-up. pointée (\pwɛ̃.te\) and pointus (\pwɛ̃.ty\) 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 58296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pointée is recorded at frequency rank #32,528, classified as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.te\. pointus is at rank #25,768, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.ty\.

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 58296, this pair ranks #109,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pointée vs pointus

Shared letters: inopt. Private to "pointée": . Private to "pointus": su.

"pointée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV  ·  "pointus" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pointusopintus · piontus · poinntus · pointsu · pointtus · pointuss · poinuts · poitnus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pointée" and "pointus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pwɛ̃.te\ versus \pwɛ̃.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pointée" vs "pointus" - which ranks higher?
"pointus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,768 in our French list, against #32,528 for "pointée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pointée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pointus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pointée" and "pointus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointée vs pontet". 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 #109,889 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