caution

\ko.sjɔ̃\

/\ko.sjɔ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“caution” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,794. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#6,794
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise

Corpus desk

Index FR-caution · caution · French

caution · rank #6,794 · 9 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,794
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH capture

Nearest frequency peer: capture (-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 « caution »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « caution » 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).

caution vs cautions
88% similar
caution vs cautionne
78% similar
caution vs catin
71% similar

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

Key facts for caution
PropertyValue
Headwordcaution
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ko.sjɔ̃\
Letters7
Frequency rank#6,794
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « caution »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).cautionse 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 « capture » (#6,793), « chic » (#6,795), « camping » (#6,792). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « caution » est au #6,794. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around caution (IPA \ko.sjɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,794 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for caution, with forms such as "acution", "catuion", and "cauiton". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "cautions", "cautionne", "catin", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is caution, spelled C-A-U-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  2. 2
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  3. 3
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  4. 4
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  5. 5
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  6. 6
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  7. 7
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  8. 8
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  9. 9
    Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
  10. 10
    Condition requise pour entériner quelque chose. → voir sujet à caution et sous caution

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Cependant, même entre le débiteur et la caution, le contrat peut être à titre onéreux […]
  2. Rogron et sa sœur furent obligés de donner caution pour ne pas aller en prison.

Synonyms

avalgagegarantie

This word in other languages

guarantee(English)fianza(Español)Kaution(Deutsch)caução(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acution
  • catuion
  • cauiton
  • cautino
  • cautionn
  • cautoin
  • cauttion
  • ccaution
  • cuation

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of caution - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

acution2catuion2cauiton2cautino2cautionn1cautoin2cauttion1ccaution1
Edit distance from "caution"

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 "caution"?
"caution" is spelled C-A-U-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ko.sjɔ̃\.
What does "caution" mean?
As a noun, "caution" means: Garantie, assurance d’un engagement pris. → voir caution bourgeoise
What words are commonly confused with "caution"?
"caution" is commonly confused with "cautions", "cautionne", "catin". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "caution"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "caution" is \ko.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "caution" come from?
"caution" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "caution", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

capture#6,793camping#6,792boutons#6,789écoutes#6,772

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

bruits9 variantscontes9 variantscrever9 variantsdivisé9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list