Which to use
“chaman” and “chaton” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,177
- “chaman” frequency rank
- #14,880
- “chaton” frequency rank
- 56057
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chaman | chaton |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Homme dépositaire de la culture, des croyances et des pratiques spirituelles du chamanisme. | 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 chaman and chaton
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chaman and chaton follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses chaman with chaton
A purely visual mix-up. chaman (\ʃa.man\) 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 56057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chaman is recorded at frequency rank #41,177, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃa.man\. 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 56057, this pair ranks #123,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chaman vs chaton
Shared letters: achn. Private to "chaman": m. Private to "chaton": ot.
"chaman" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "chaton" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chaman" for "chaton" ever safe?
Which is more common, "chaman" or "chaton"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "chaman" and "chaton" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chaman" 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 #123,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chaman" and "chaton" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaman vs Charon". 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 #123,500 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.