poussinvspoussinsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,724
“poussin” frequency rank
#23,318
“poussins” frequency rank
39042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poussin poussins
Definition Petit de la poule encore recouvert de duvet. Pluriel de poussin.

Same sound, different letters: poussin vs poussins

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. poussin runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against poussins's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
poussin
8 ch
poussins

Ear matches; page differs - poussin and poussins

This is the hard kind. poussin and poussins are pronounced identically (\pu.sɛ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “poussin” sits inside “poussins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poussin is recorded at frequency rank #15,724, classified as anoun, pronounced \pu.sɛ̃\. poussins is at rank #23,318, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pu.sɛ̃\.

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 39042, this pair ranks #250,936 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poussin vs poussins

Shared letters: inopsu. Private to "poussin": -. Private to "poussins": -.

"poussin" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "poussins" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poussinopussin · posusin · pousin · pousisn · poussinn · poussni · ppoussin · puossin
  • poussinsopussins · posusins · pousins · pousisns · poussinns · poussinss · poussisn · poussnis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poussin" and "poussins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pu.sɛ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "poussin" vs "poussins" - which ranks higher?
"poussin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,724 in our French list, against #23,318 for "poussins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "poussin" / "poussins". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poussin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poussins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,936 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poussin" and "poussins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poulin vs poussin". 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 #250,936 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