reinsvsroisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,059
“reins” frequency rank
#4,283
“rois” frequency rank
14342
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reins rois
Definition Pluriel de rein. Pluriel de roi.

Where the eye mixes reins and rois

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. reins runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against rois's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
reins
4 ch
rois

Look-alike desk: reins vs rois

A purely visual mix-up. reins (\ʁɛ̃\) and rois (\ʁwa\) 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 14342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reins is recorded at frequency rank #10,059, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ̃\. rois is at rank #4,283, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁwa\.

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 14342, this pair ranks #397,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reins vs rois

Shared letters: irs. Private to "reins": en. Private to "rois": o.

"reins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "rois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reinserins · reinns · reinss · reisn · renis · rreins
  • roisoris · roiss · rosi · rrois

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reins" and "rois" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛ̃\ versus \ʁwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "reins" or "rois" show up more?
"rois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,283 in our French list, against #10,059 for "reins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "reins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rois" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reins" and "rois" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reins vs Reis". 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 #397,106 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