protéinevsprotéinesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,468
“protéine” frequency rank
#7,486
“protéines” frequency rank
22954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature protéine protéines
Definition Macromolécule constituée d’une ou plusieurs chaînes d’au moins cinquante acides aminés appelées polypeptides, auxquelles sont souvent ajoutés des groupements divers, et possédant une structure tridimensionnelle. Pluriel de protéine.

Same sound, different letters: protéine vs protéines

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. protéine runs 8 letters (CCVCVVCV) against protéines's 9 (CCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
protéine
9 ch
protéines

Same sound, different spelling - protéine / protéines

This is the hard kind. protéine and protéines are pronounced identically (\pʁɔ.te.in\) 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) - “protéine” sits inside “protéines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

protéine is recorded at frequency rank #15,468, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.te.in\. protéines is at rank #7,486, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.te.in\.

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 22954, this pair ranks #355,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of protéine vs protéines

Shared letters: einoprté. Private to "protéine": -. Private to "protéines": s.

"protéine" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCV  ·  "protéines" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "protéine" and "protéines" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁɔ.te.in\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "protéine" or "protéines" show up more?
"protéines" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,486 in our French list, against #15,468 for "protéine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"protéine" and "protéines" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "protéine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "protéines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #355,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "protéine" and "protéines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "promené vs protéine". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #355,191 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