toxinesvstoxiquesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: toxines is a noun, toxiques is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“toxines” is a noun and “toxiques” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,796
“toxines” frequency rank
#8,788
“toxiques” frequency rank
33584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toxines toxiques
Definition Pluriel de toxine. Pluriel de toxique.

Where the eye mixes toxines and toxiques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
toxines
8 ch
toxiques

Visual trap between toxines and toxiques

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: toxines is \tɔk.sin\ while toxiques is \tɔk.sik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toxines is recorded at frequency rank #24,796, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔk.sin\. toxiques is at rank #8,788, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɔk.sik\.

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 33584, this pair ranks #289,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of toxines vs toxiques

Shared letters: eiostx. Private to "toxines": n. Private to "toxiques": qu.

"toxines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "toxiques" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toxinesotxines · toixnes · toxiens · toxiness · toxinnes · toxinse · toxnies · toxxines
  • toxiquesotxiques · toixques · toxiqeus · toxiqques · toxiquess · toxiquse · toxiuqes · toxqiues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "toxines" for "toxiques" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "toxines" is a noun and "toxiques" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "toxines" or "toxiques"?
"toxiques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,788 in our French list, against #24,796 for "toxines". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "toxines" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toxiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #289,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toxines" and "toxiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tories vs toxines". 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 #289,629 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