aumônevsautomneConfusable pair

Which to use

“aumône” and “automne” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,327
“aumône” frequency rank
#2,608
“automne” frequency rank
29935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aumône automne
Definition Ce que l’on donne aux pauvres par charité. Une des quatre saisons de l’année. Dans l’hémisphère nord, l’automne astronomique s’étend du 7 août au 7 novembre, l’équinoxe d’automne représentant le milieu de l’automne. L’automne météorologique (demi-saison se trouvant entre les saisons chaude et froide) comprend les mois de septembre, octobre et novembre. L’automne calendaire français, enfin, s’étend du 22 septembre (équinoxe d’automne) au 21 décembre (solstice d'hiver). Dans l’hémisphère sud, ce découpage correspond à la saison de printemps.

Where the eye mixes aumône and automne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. aumône runs 6 letters (VVCVCV) against automne's 7 (VVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
aumône
7 ch
automne

Look-alike desk: aumône vs automne

A purely visual mix-up. aumône (\o.mon\) and automne (\o.tɔn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aumône is recorded at frequency rank #27,327, classified as anoun, pronounced \o.mon\. automne is at rank #2,608, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.tɔn\.

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 29935, this pair ranks #313,548 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aumône vs automne

Shared letters: aemnu. Private to "aumône": ô. Private to "automne": ot.

"aumône" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCV  ·  "automne" · 7 letters · shape VVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • automneatuomne · auotmne · autmone · automen · autommne · automnne · autonme · auttomne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aumône" and "automne" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\o.mon\ versus \o.tɔn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aumône" or "automne"?
"automne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,608 in our French list, against #27,327 for "aumône". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "aumône" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "automne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #313,548 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aumône" and "automne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "among vs aumône". 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 #313,548 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