robinvsrobinetTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,983
“robin” frequency rank
#10,397
“robinet” frequency rank
15380
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature robin robinet
Definition Personne de peu, prétentieuse ou sotte. Pièce ajustée à l’issue d’un tuyau, d’un réservoir, etc., qui sert à retenir le liquide ou le gaz et à le faire sortir quand on veut.

Where the eye mixes robin and robinet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
robin
7 ch
robinet

Why the eye confuses robin with robinet

A purely visual mix-up. robin (\ʁɔ.bɛ̃\) and robinet (\ʁɔ.bi.nɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “robin” sits inside “robinet”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

robin is recorded at frequency rank #4,983, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.bɛ̃\. robinet is at rank #10,397, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.bi.nɛ\.

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 15380, this pair ranks #392,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of robin vs robinet

Shared letters: binor. Private to "robin": -. Private to "robinet": et.

"robin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "robinet" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • robinorbin · rboin · robbin · robinn · robni · roibn · rrobin
  • robinetorbinet · rboinet · robbinet · robient · robinett · robinnet · robinte · robniet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "robin" and "robinet" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɔ.bɛ̃\ versus \ʁɔ.bi.nɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "robin" vs "robinet" - which ranks higher?
"robin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,983 in our French list, against #10,397 for "robinet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "robin" and "robinet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "robin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "robinet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "robin" and "robinet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robin vs rôtir". 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 #392,628 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