Which to use
“cadran” and “carcan” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,891
- “cadran” frequency rank
- #30,088
- “carcan” frequency rank
- 47979
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cadran | carcan |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Surface sur laquelle sont tracés les chiffres des heures et où la marche du temps est indiquée soit par l’ombre d’un style, soit par une aiguille que meuvent des ressorts intérieurs. | Cercle de fer ou plaque en bois avec des trous pour le cou et les poignets avec lequel on attachait par le cou à un poteau certains criminels condamnés au pilori. |
Where the eye mixes cadran and carcan
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cadran and carcan follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses cadran with carcan
A purely visual mix-up. cadran (\ka.dʁɑ̃\) and carcan (\kaʁ.kɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cadran is recorded at frequency rank #17,891, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.dʁɑ̃\. carcan is at rank #30,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ.kɑ̃\.
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 47979, this pair ranks #182,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cadran vs carcan
Shared letters: acnr. Private to "cadran": d. Private to "carcan": -.
"cadran" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "carcan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cadran" and "carcan" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cadran" vs "carcan" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cadran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carcan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #182,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cadran" and "carcan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carcan vs Carnac". 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 #182,628 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.