Which to use
“poison” is a noun and “Poissy” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,216
- “poison” frequency rank
- #23,980
- “Poissy” frequency rank
- 33196
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poison | Poissy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Substance qui, introduite dans l’organisme, altère ou même détruit les fonctions vitales. | Commune française, située dans le département des Yvelines. |
Where the eye mixes poison and Poissy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. poison (CVVCVC) and Poissy (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between poison and Poissy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poison is \pwa.zɔ̃\ while Poissy is \pwa.si\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poison is recorded at frequency rank #9,216, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwa.zɔ̃\. Poissy is at rank #23,980, tagged as aname, pronounced \pwa.si\.
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 33196, this pair ranks #292,242 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poison vs Poissy
Shared letters: iops. Private to "poison": n. Private to "Poissy": y.
"poison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "Poissy" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poison" and "Poissy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "poison" or "Poissy"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poison" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Poissy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #292,242 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poison" and "Poissy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pinson vs poison". 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 #292,242 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.