canonsvscréonsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: canons is a adjective, créons is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“canons” is an adjective and “créons” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,271
“canons” frequency rank
#34,969
“créons” frequency rank
41240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature canons créons
Definition Pluriel de canon. Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de créer.

Where the eye mixes canons and créons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. canons (CVCVCC) and créons (CCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
canons
6 ch
créons

Visual trap between canons and créons

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: canons is \ka.nɔ̃\ while créons is \kʁe.ɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41240, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

canons is recorded at frequency rank #6,271, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.nɔ̃\. créons is at rank #34,969, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁe.ɔ̃\.

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 41240, this pair ranks #234,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of canons vs créons

Shared letters: cnos. Private to "canons": a. Private to "créons": ré.

"canons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "créons" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • canons ← acnons · cannons · cannos · canonns · canonss · canosn · caonns · ccanons

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "canons" for "créons" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "canons" is an adjective and "créons" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "canons" or "créons"?
"canons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,271 in our French list, against #34,969 for "créons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "canons" and "créons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "canons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "créons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "canons" and "créons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cotons vs créons". 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 #234,553 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