Which to use
“clan” and “con” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,412
- “clan” frequency rank
- #1,056
- “con” frequency rank
- 5468
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clan | con |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chez les Celtes, tribu formée d’un certain nombre de familles. | Sexe de la femme. |
Where the eye mixes clan and con
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses clan with con
A purely visual mix-up. clan (\klɑ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clan is recorded at frequency rank #4,412, classified as anoun, pronounced \klɑ̃\. 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 5468, this pair ranks #428,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clan vs con
Shared letters: cn. Private to "clan": al. Private to "con": o.
"clan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "con" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- clan ← caln · cclan · clann · cllan · clna · lcan
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clan" for "con" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clan" vs "con" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "clan" and "con" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clan" 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 #428,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clan" and "con" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clan 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 #428,931 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.