rinvsrobinTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,141
“rin” frequency rank
#4,983
“robin” frequency rank
41124
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rin robin
Definition Rameau, rain. Personne de peu, prétentieuse ou sotte.

Where the eye mixes rin and robin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
rin
5 ch
robin

Why the eye confuses rin with robin

A purely visual mix-up. rin (\ʁɛ̃\) and robin (\ʁɔ.bɛ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41124, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rin is recorded at frequency rank #36,141, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ̃\. robin is at rank #4,983, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.bɛ̃\.

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 41124, this pair ranks #235,416 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rin vs robin

Shared letters: inr. Private to "rin": -. Private to "robin": bo.

"rin" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "robin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • robinorbin · rboin · robbin · robinn · robni · roibn · rrobin

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rin" and "robin" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛ̃\ versus \ʁɔ.bɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rin" or "robin"?
"robin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,983 in our French list, against #36,141 for "rin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "robin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,416 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rin" and "robin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Reis vs rin". 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 #235,416 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