Which to use
“requin” and “requins” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,907
- “requin” frequency rank
- #11,473
- “requins” frequency rank
- 21380
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | requin | requins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce de poisson de mer prédateur de la classe des chondrichthyens (Chondrichthyens), à la silhouette fuselée, hydrodynamique, ayant plusieurs rangées de dents tranchantes à chacune des 2 mâchoires, une nageoire dorsale, deux pectorales, et une nageoire caudale hétérocerque (asymétrique), ayant cinq à sept fentes branchiales sur le côté, et une peau rugueuse (denticules dermiques). | Pluriel de requin. |
Same sound, different letters: requin vs requins
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. requin runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against requins's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - requin and requins
This is the hard kind. requin and requins are pronounced identically (\ʁə.kɛ̃\) 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) - “requin” sits inside “requins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
requin is recorded at frequency rank #9,907, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kɛ̃\. requins is at rank #11,473, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kɛ̃\.
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 21380, this pair ranks #363,456 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of requin vs requins
Shared letters: einqru. Private to "requin": -. Private to "requins": s.
"requin" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "requins" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "requin" and "requins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "requin" or "requins"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "requin" / "requins". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "requin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "requins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #363,456 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "requin" and "requins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réduis vs requins". 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 #363,456 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.