profitsvsprovinsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,873
“profits” frequency rank
#32,965
“provins” frequency rank
39838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature profits provins
Definition Pluriel de profit. Pluriel de provin.

Where the eye mixes profits and provins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. profits and provins follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
profits
7 ch
provins

Look-alike desk: profits vs provins

A purely visual mix-up. profits (\pʁɔ.fi\) and provins (\pʁɔ.vɛ̃\) 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 39838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

profits is recorded at frequency rank #6,873, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.fi\. provins is at rank #32,965, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.vɛ̃\.

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 39838, this pair ranks #244,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of profits vs provins

Shared letters: ioprs. Private to "profits": ft. Private to "provins": nv.

"profits" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "provins" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • profits ← porfits · pprofits · prfoits · proffits · profist · profitss · profitts · proftis
  • provins ← porvins · pprovins · proivns · provinns · provinss · provisn · provnis · provvins

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "profits" and "provins" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.fi\ versus \pʁɔ.vɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "profits" or "provins"?
"profits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,873 in our French list, against #32,965 for "provins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "profits" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #244,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "profits" and "provins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "protons vs provins". 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 #244,984 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