sinusvssoinsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,185
“sinus” frequency rank
#1,786
“soins” frequency rank
27971
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sinus soins
Definition Formation anatomique creuse, liquidienne ou pneumatique. Pluriel de soin.

Where the eye mixes sinus and soins

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

5 ch
sinus
5 ch
soins

Why the eye confuses sinus with soins

A purely visual mix-up. sinus (\si.nys\) and soins (\swɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sinus is recorded at frequency rank #26,185, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.nys\. soins is at rank #1,786, tagged as anoun, pronounced \swɛ̃\.

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 27971, this pair ranks #325,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sinus vs soins

Shared letters: ins. Private to "sinus": u. Private to "soins": o.

"sinus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "soins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sinusisnus · sinnus · sinsu · sinuss · siuns · snius · ssinus
  • soinsosins · sions · soinns · soinss · soisn · sonis · ssoins

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sinus" and "soins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\si.nys\ versus \swɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sinus" or "soins"?
"soins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,786 in our French list, against #26,185 for "sinus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "sinus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sinus" and "soins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sinus 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 #325,674 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