sinevssingleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,282
“sine” frequency rank
#8,310
“single” frequency rank
28592
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sine single
Definition Sinus. Cabine ou chambre d’hôtel pour une personne. Dans ce cas, s’utilise au féminin, et s’oppose à double ou twin.

Where the eye mixes sine and single

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
sine
6 ch
single

Visual trap between sine and single

A purely visual mix-up. sine (\ˈsaɪn\) and single (\siŋ.ɡœl\) 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 28592, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sine is recorded at frequency rank #20,282, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈsaɪn\. single is at rank #8,310, tagged as anoun, pronounced \siŋ.ɡœl\.

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 28592, this pair ranks #321,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sine vs single

Shared letters: eins. Private to "sine": -. Private to "single": gl.

"sine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "single" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sineisne · sinne · snie · ssine
  • singleisngle · signle · singel · singgle · singlle · sinlge · sinngle · snigle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sine" for "single" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈsaɪn\ versus \siŋ.ɡœl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sine" vs "single" - which ranks higher?
"single" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,310 in our French list, against #20,282 for "sine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "single" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sine" and "single" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sine vs sires". 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 #321,859 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