Which to use
“bâillon” and “ballot” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,208
- “bâillon” frequency rank
- #33,564
- “ballot” frequency rank
- 75772
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bâillon | ballot |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Petite balle de marchandises. |
Where the eye mixes bâillon and ballot
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bâillon runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against ballot's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses bâillon with ballot
A purely visual mix-up. bâillon (\bɑ.jɔ̃\) and ballot (\ba.lo\) 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 75772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bâillon is recorded at frequency rank #42,208, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ.jɔ̃\. ballot is at rank #33,564, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.lo\.
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 75772, this pair ranks #33,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bâillon vs ballot
Shared letters: blo. Private to "bâillon": inâ. Private to "ballot": at.
"bâillon" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "ballot" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ballot ← abllot · ballott · ballto · balolt · balot · bballot · blalot
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bâillon" for "ballot" ever safe?
Frequency check: "bâillon" vs "ballot" - which ranks higher?
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 "bâillon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ballot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bâillon" and "ballot" 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 #33,057 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.