Which to use
“canon” is a noun and “canons” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,385
- “canon” frequency rank
- #6,271
- “canons” frequency rank
- 9656
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | canon | canons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pièce d’artillerie en forme de tube, et servant à lancer des projectiles, boulets, obus, etc. | Pluriel de canon. |
Same sound, different letters: canon vs canons
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. canon runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against canons's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - canon and canons
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: canon and canons carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ka.nɔ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “canon” sits inside “canons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
canon is recorded at frequency rank #3,385, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.nɔ̃\. canons is at rank #6,271, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.nɔ̃\.
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 9656, this pair ranks #415,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of canon vs canons
Shared letters: acno. Private to "canon": -. Private to "canons": s.
"canon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "canons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "canon" and "canons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "canon" or "canons" show up more?
After this comparison
"canon" and "canons" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "canon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "canons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #415,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "canon" and "canons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "canons vs canyons". 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 #415,887 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.