bidon

\bi.dɔ̃\

/\bi.dɔ̃\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bidon” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #8,505. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,505
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Gourde de fer-blanc propre à contenir de l’eau ou tout autre liquide, à usage militaire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bidon · bidon · French

bidon · rank #8,505 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,505
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH Bastia

Nearest frequency peer: Bastia (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « bidon »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « bidon » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bidon vs bon
60% similar
bidon vs bio
60% similar
bidon vs bin
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bidon
PropertyValue
Headwordbidon
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bi.dɔ̃\
Letters5
Frequency rank#8,505
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « bidon »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.bidonse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Bastia » (#8,504), « bretons » (#8,506), « basque » (#8,503). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bidon » est au #8,505. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around bidon (IPA \bi.dɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,505 among 4,251 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for bidon, with forms such as "bbidon", "bdion", and "biddon". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bon", "bio", "bin", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is bidon, spelled B-I-D-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Gourde de fer-blanc propre à contenir de l’eau ou tout autre liquide, à usage militaire.
  2. 2
    Espèce de broc de bois qui contenait environ cinq litres.
  3. 3
    Petite baille à deux anses, contenant de la viande, du beurre salé, du poisson, etc.
  4. 4
    Récipient en fer-blanc, en plastique, etc., clos hermétiquement, renfermant de l’huile, du pétrole, de l’essence, du lait, etc.
  5. 5
    Le contenu de ce récipient.
  6. 6
    Ventre, bide. → voir bedon
  7. 7
    Vaisselle.
  8. 8
    Boniment, mensonge ; chose factice, trompeuse, spécieuse, bluffeuse.
  9. 9
    Personne qui n’est pas réellement ce qu’elle paraît être.
  10. 10
    Plaque de métal.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bidon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Tous ceux qui n’avaient pas de bidons, de troisième cartouchière, de vis de culasse, en découvrent soudain un choix près d’eux […].
  2. On fait la distribution de sucre, de dattes, de beurre arabe. Il se trouve que nous sommes à la fin du Ramadan, mais encore au temps du jeûne. Les hommes vont emporter un bidon militaire rempli de beurre. En France ce bidon ne contient que de l’eau, du vin ou du café. Au désert, il sera la conserve du beurre.

This word in other languages

canteen(English)Kanister(Deutsch)cantil(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbidon
  • bdion
  • biddon
  • bidno
  • bidonn
  • biodn
  • ibdon

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bidon - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

bbidon1bdion2biddon1bidno2bidonn1biodn2ibdon2
Edit distance from "bidon"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bidon"?
"bidon" is spelled B-I-D-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \bi.dɔ̃\.
What does "bidon" mean?
As a noun, "bidon" means: Gourde de fer-blanc propre à contenir de l’eau ou tout autre liquide, à usage militaire.
What words are commonly confused with "bidon"?
"bidon" is commonly confused with "bon", "bio", "bin". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bidon"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bidon" is \bi.dɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bidon" come from?
"bidon" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bidon", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Barry#8,502clefs#8,516about#8,490cruel#8,524

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

anneaux7 variantsCNRS7 variantstirée7 variantstenez7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list