Which to use
“bailli” and “bâillon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,214
- “bailli” frequency rank
- #42,208
- “bâillon” frequency rank
- 67422
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bailli | bâillon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Officier royal ou seigneurial, au nom duquel la justice se rendait dans l’étendue d’une certaine juridiction (baillie) où il exerce par délégation un pouvoir administratif et militaire, et surtout des attributions judiciaires. | Morceau de bois, de fer, etc., qu’on met de force entre les mâchoires d’une personne pour l’empêcher de parler et de crier, ou dans la gueule d’un animal pour l’empêcher de mordre ou de faire du bruit. |
Where the eye mixes bailli and bâillon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bailli with bâillon
A purely visual mix-up. bailli (\ba.ji\) and bâillon (\bɑ.jɔ̃\) 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 67422, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bailli is recorded at frequency rank #25,214, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.ji\. bâillon is at rank #42,208, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɑ.jɔ̃\.
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 67422, this pair ranks #63,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bailli vs bâillon
Shared letters: bil. Private to "bailli": a. Private to "bâillon": noâ.
"bailli" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "bâillon" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bailli ← abilli · baili · bailil · balili · bbailli · bialli
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bailli" and "bâillon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "bailli" or "bâillon"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bailli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bâillon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bailli" and "bâillon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bâillon vs billion". 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 #63,500 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.