pointuevspointureTell them apart

Quick tell: pointue is a adjective, pointure is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pointue” is an adjective and “pointure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,913
“pointue” frequency rank
#27,914
“pointure” frequency rank
55827
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pointue pointure
Definition Féminin singulier de pointu. Dimension exprimée en point d’un objet quelconque.

Where the eye mixes pointue and pointure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. pointue runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against pointure's 8 (CVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
pointue
8 ch
pointure

Look-alike desk: pointue vs pointure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pointue is \pwɛ̃.ty\ while pointure is \pwɛ̃.tyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pointue is recorded at frequency rank #27,913, classified as anadj, pronounced \pwɛ̃.ty\. pointure is at rank #27,914, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwɛ̃.tyʁ\.

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 55827, this pair ranks #124,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pointue vs pointure

Shared letters: einoptu. Private to "pointue": -. Private to "pointure": r.

"pointue" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV  ·  "pointure" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pointue ← opintue · piontue · poinntue · pointeu · pointtue · poinute · poitnue · ponitue
  • pointure ← opinture · pionture · poinnture · pointrue · pointture · pointurre · poinutre · poitnure

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pointue" and "pointure" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pointue" is an adjective and "pointure" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "pointue" or "pointure" show up more?
"pointue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,913 in our French list, against #27,914 for "pointure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pointue" and "pointure" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pointue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pointure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pointue" and "pointure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointeurs vs pointure". 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 #124,975 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