Which to use
“racine” and “ricin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,912
- “racine” frequency rank
- #40,967
- “ricin” frequency rank
- 46879
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | racine | ricin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Organe végétal, généralement souterrain, assurant l’absorption de l’eau et des sels minéraux, la fixation de la plante à son support et parfois le stockage de réserves. Certaines racines peuvent être aériennes, aquatiques ou spécialisées. | Grande plante vivace arborescente de la famille des Euphorbiacées, à fleurs unisexuelles et sans corolle, extrêmement toxique, dont les semences fournissent une huile employée comme purgatif et comme lubrifiant. |
Where the eye mixes racine and ricin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. racine runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against ricin's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between racine and ricin
A purely visual mix-up. racine (\ʁa.sin\) and ricin (\ʁi.sɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
racine is recorded at frequency rank #5,912, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.sin\. ricin is at rank #40,967, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁi.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 46879, this pair ranks #191,329 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of racine vs ricin
Shared letters: cinr. Private to "racine": ae. Private to "ricin": -.
"racine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "ricin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "racine" for "ricin" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "racine" or "ricin" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "racine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ricin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,329 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "racine" and "ricin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ricin vs Rimini". 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 #191,329 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.