Which to use
“caillou” and “carillon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,314
- “caillou” frequency rank
- #33,594
- “carillon” frequency rank
- 49908
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caillou | carillon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pierre de petite (ou moyenne) dimension. | Réunion de cloches accordées à différents tons. |
Where the eye mixes caillou and carillon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. caillou runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against carillon's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between caillou and carillon
A purely visual mix-up. caillou (\ka.ju\) and carillon (\ka.ʁi.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 49908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caillou is recorded at frequency rank #16,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ju\. carillon is at rank #33,594, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁi.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 49908, this pair ranks #166,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caillou vs carillon
Shared letters: acilo. Private to "caillou": u. Private to "carillon": nr.
"caillou" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "carillon" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "caillou" and "carillon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "caillou" or "carillon"?
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 "caillou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carillon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #166,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caillou" and "carillon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carillon vs Cavaillon". 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 #166,899 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.