Which to use
“caron” and “clairon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,624
- “caron” frequency rank
- #38,705
- “clairon” frequency rank
- 53329
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caron | clairon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Signe typographique diacritique ‹ ◌̌ ›, utilisé dans l’écriture de certaines langues slaves (tchèque, slovaque, slovène), dans l’écriture de plusieurs langues à tons, et dans la transcription phonétique du chinois mandarin pinyin, pour les troisièmes tons. | Sorte de trompette sans piston, utilisée dans les sonneries militaires. |
Where the eye mixes caron and clairon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between caron and clairon
A purely visual mix-up. caron (\ka.ʁɔ̃\) and clairon (\klɛ.ʁɔ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caron is recorded at frequency rank #14,624, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁɔ̃\. clairon is at rank #38,705, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klɛ.ʁɔ̃\.
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 53329, this pair ranks #141,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caron vs clairon
Shared letters: acnor. Private to "caron": -. Private to "clairon": il.
"caron" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "clairon" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "caron" for "clairon" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "caron" or "clairon" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "caron" and "clairon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "caron" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clairon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #141,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caron" and "clairon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chiron vs clairon". 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 #141,482 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.