échelon

\eʃ.lɔ̃\

/\eʃ.lɔ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“échelon” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,886. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,886
frequency rank, French
1,805
“É” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Chacune des traverses de bois ou de fer qui servent de degrés d’une échelle.

Corpus desk

Index FR-echelon · échelon · French

échelon · rank #11,886 · 11 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,886
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,805
  • PHOTO-FINISH écoutent

Nearest frequency peer: écoutent (+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 « échelon »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « échelon » 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).

échelon vs échevin
71% similar
échelon vs échelons
88% similar
échelon vs échelle
71% similar

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

Key facts for échelon
PropertyValue
Headwordéchelon
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\eʃ.lɔ̃\
Letters7
Frequency rank#11,886
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « échelon »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).échelonse 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 « écoutent » (#11,887), « whisky » (#11,884), « élevait » (#11,888). Parmi 1,805 lemmes en « É », « échelon » est au #11,886. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around échelon (IPA \eʃ.lɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #11,886 among 1,805 “É” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for échelon, with forms such as "céhelon", "echelon", and "écchelon". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "échevin", "échelons", "échelle", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is échelon, spelled É-C-H-E-L-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Chacune des traverses de bois ou de fer qui servent de degrés d’une échelle.
  2. 2
    Ce qui sert à mener d’un rang, d’un grade à un autre plus élevé.
  3. 3
    Disposition des troupes sur divers plans, de façon à ce que les unes puissent soutenir et remplacer successivement les autres.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Éperdue, d’un violent coup d’ailes, elle s’enleva de terre, lui passa sur la tête, lui donna un coup de patte et se trouva perchée sur un bâton de l’échelle qui montait au “foineau”, puis, les ailes ouvertes en balancier, elle la gravit, sans se presser, échelon par échelon, comme un escalier à pente douce et disparut dans le foineau.
  2. Jacques saisit une échelle double, appliquée contre la porte de la buanderie, la dresse devant le mur taché et franchit ses échelons.

Synonyms

barreaudegrégradeniveaupalierrangstade

This word in other languages

step(English)escalón(Español)Sprosse(Deutsch)degrau(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • céhelon
  • echelon
  • écchelon
  • écehlon
  • échellon
  • échelno
  • échelonn
  • écheoln
  • échhelon
  • échleon
  • éhcelon

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

céhelon2echelon1écchelon1écehlon2échellon1échelno2échelonn1écheoln2
Edit distance from "échelon"

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 "échelon"?
"échelon" is spelled É-C-H-E-L-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \eʃ.lɔ̃\.
What does "échelon" mean?
As a noun, "échelon" means: Chacune des traverses de bois ou de fer qui servent de degrés d’une échelle.
What words are commonly confused with "échelon"?
"échelon" is commonly confused with "échevin", "échelons", "échelle". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "échelon"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "échelon" is \eʃ.lɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "échelon" come from?
"échelon" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "échelon", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

élevait#11,888élèvent#11,891vicieux#11,879viandes#11,878

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

variante11 variantstronche11 variantssuffirait11 variantsanimales11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list