championvschampionneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,903
“champion” frequency rank
#6,378
“championne” frequency rank
8281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature champion championne
Definition Autrefois, celui qui livrait en champ clos un combat judiciaire, pour son compte ou celui d'une autre personne. Celle qui soutient un combat comme quelqu’un ou quelque chose, qui défend une cause, défenseuse.

Where the eye mixes champion and championne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. champion runs 8 letters (CCVCCVVC) against championne's 10 (CCVCCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
champion
10 ch
championne

Visual trap between champion and championne

A purely visual mix-up. champion (\ʃɑ̃.pjɔ̃\) and championne (\ʃɑ̃.pjɔn\) 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 extra letter(s) - “champion” sits inside “championne”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

champion is recorded at frequency rank #1,903, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃.pjɔ̃\. championne is at rank #6,378, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃.pjɔn\.

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 8281, this pair ranks #420,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of champion vs championne

Shared letters: achimnop. Private to "champion": -. Private to "championne": e.

"champion" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC  ·  "championne" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • champion ← cahmpion · cchampion · chamipon · chammpion · champino · championn · champoin · champpion
  • championne ← cahmpionne · cchampionne · chamiponne · chammpionne · champinone · champione · championen · champoinne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "champion" for "championne" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɑ̃.pjɔ̃\ versus \ʃɑ̃.pjɔn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "champion" or "championne" show up more?
"champion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,903 in our French list, against #6,378 for "championne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "champion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "championne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "champion" and "championne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "campion vs champion". 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 #420,563 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