canyonsvscrayonsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,393
“canyons” frequency rank
#18,974
“crayons” frequency rank
67367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature canyons crayons
Definition Pluriel de canyon. Pluriel de crayon.

Where the eye mixes canyons and crayons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
canyons
7 ch
crayons

Why the eye confuses canyons with crayons

A purely visual mix-up. canyons (\ka.njɔ̃\) and crayons (\kʁɛ.jɔ̃\) 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 67367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

canyons is recorded at frequency rank #48,393, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.njɔ̃\. crayons is at rank #18,974, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ.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 67367, this pair ranks #63,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of canyons vs crayons

Shared letters: acnosy. Private to "canyons": -. Private to "crayons": r.

"canyons" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "crayons" · 7 letters · shape CCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • canyonsacnyons · cannyons · canoyns · canynos · canyonns · canyonss · canyosn · canyyons
  • crayonscaryons · ccrayons · craoyns · craynos · crayonns · crayonss · crayosn · crayyons

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "canyons" for "crayons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.njɔ̃\ versus \kʁɛ.jɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "canyons" vs "crayons" - which ranks higher?
"crayons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,974 in our French list, against #48,393 for "canyons". 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 "canyons" and "crayons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "canyons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crayons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "canyons" and "crayons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cantona 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 #63,717 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