bilanvsbillonWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,026
“bilan” frequency rank
#41,675
“billon” frequency rank
43701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bilan billon
Definition Récapitulatif. Pièce de bois de sapin équarrie, billot.

Where the eye mixes bilan and billon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bilan
6 ch
billon

Why the eye confuses bilan with billon

A purely visual mix-up. bilan (\bi.lɑ̃\) and billon (\bi.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 43701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bilan is recorded at frequency rank #2,026, classified as anoun, pronounced \bi.lɑ̃\. billon is at rank #41,675, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bi.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 43701, this pair ranks #216,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bilan vs billon

Shared letters: biln. Private to "bilan": a. Private to "billon": o.

"bilan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "billon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bilanbbilan · bialn · bilann · billan · bilna · blian · iblan
  • billonbbillon · billno · billonn · biloln · bilon · blilon · ibllon

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bilan" and "billon" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bi.lɑ̃\ versus \bi.jɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bilan" vs "billon" - which ranks higher?
"bilan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,026 in our French list, against #41,675 for "billon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bilan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "billon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bilan" and "billon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "billion vs billon". 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 #216,099 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