catonvsconWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,329
“caton” frequency rank
#1,056
“con” frequency rank
44385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caton con
Definition Tringle de fer qu’on forge à bras pour la passer à la filière. Sexe de la femme.

Where the eye mixes caton and con

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
caton
3 ch
con

Visual trap between caton and con

A purely visual mix-up. caton (\ka.tɔ̃\) and con (\kɔ̃\) 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 44385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caton is recorded at frequency rank #43,329, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.tɔ̃\. con is at rank #1,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃\.

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 44385, this pair ranks #210,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caton vs con

Shared letters: cno. Private to "caton": at. Private to "con": -.

"caton" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "con" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • catonacton · caotn · catno · catonn · catton · ccaton · ctaon

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caton" for "con" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.tɔ̃\ versus \kɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caton" or "con"?
"con" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,056 in our French list, against #43,329 for "caton". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caton" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "con" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caton" and "con" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caton vs coon". 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 #210,836 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