Which to use
“ravin” and “ricin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,382
- “ravin” frequency rank
- #40,967
- “ricin” frequency rank
- 60349
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ravin | ricin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forte dépression de terrain ; vallon étroit et raide. | 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 ravin and ricin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ravin with ricin
A purely visual mix-up. ravin (\ʁa.vɛ̃\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60349, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ravin is recorded at frequency rank #19,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.vɛ̃\. 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 60349, this pair ranks #98,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ravin vs ricin
Shared letters: inr. Private to "ravin": av. Private to "ricin": c.
"ravin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "ricin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ravin" and "ricin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "ravin" or "ricin" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ravin" 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 #98,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ravin" 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 #98,057 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.