Which to use
“termine” is a verb and “terrine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,967
- “termine” frequency rank
- #46,485
- “terrine” frequency rank
- 49452
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | termine | terrine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de terminer. | Récipient de terre, de faïence, etc., de forme ronde, plat par en bas, et qui va en s’élargissant par en haut. |
Where the eye mixes termine and terrine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. termine and terrine follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between termine and terrine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: termine is \tɛʁ.min\ while terrine is \tɛ.ʁin\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “termine” becomes r in “terrine”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
termine is recorded at frequency rank #2,967, classified as averb, pronounced \tɛʁ.min\. terrine is at rank #46,485, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛ.ʁin\.
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 49452, this pair ranks #170,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of termine vs terrine
Shared letters: einrt. Private to "termine": m. Private to "terrine": -.
"termine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "terrine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "termine" for "terrine" ever safe?
Frequency check: "termine" vs "terrine" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "termine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "terrine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #170,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "termine" and "terrine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terrace vs terrine". 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 #170,550 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.