Which to use
“carton” and “chaton” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,215
- “carton” frequency rank
- #14,880
- “chaton” frequency rank
- 19095
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carton | chaton |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Papier gros et raide (plus de 224 g au mètre carré), composé parfois de feuilles collées. | Jeune chat, mâle ou femelle, qui n’a pas encore atteint l’âge adulte. Pour une femelle on peut plus particulièrement parler de chatonne. |
Where the eye mixes carton and chaton
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: carton vs chaton
A purely visual mix-up. carton (\kaʁ.tɔ̃\) and chaton (\ʃa.tɔ̃\) 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 19095, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carton is recorded at frequency rank #4,215, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ.tɔ̃\. chaton is at rank #14,880, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃa.tɔ̃\.
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 19095, this pair ranks #375,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of carton vs chaton
Shared letters: acnot. Private to "carton": r. Private to "chaton": h.
"carton" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "chaton" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "carton" and "chaton" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "carton" or "chaton" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "carton" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chaton" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #375,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carton" and "chaton" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaton vs chiron". 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 #375,040 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.