Which to use
“cocon” and “cordon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,930
- “cocon” frequency rank
- #9,457
- “cordon” frequency rank
- 35387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cocon | cordon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Enveloppe que se filent beaucoup de larves d’insectes, et dans laquelle doit s’opérer leur dernière mue. | Petite corde, par exemple utilisée pour tirer un mécanisme, une sonnette, … → voir cordon de tirage et tirer le cordon |
Where the eye mixes cocon and cordon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cocon with cordon
A purely visual mix-up. cocon (\kɔ.kɔ̃\) and cordon (\kɔʁ.dɔ̃\) 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 35387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cocon is recorded at frequency rank #25,930, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.kɔ̃\. cordon is at rank #9,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ.dɔ̃\.
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 35387, this pair ranks #277,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cocon vs cordon
Shared letters: cno. Private to "cocon": -. Private to "cordon": dr.
"cocon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cordon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cocon" and "cordon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cocon" or "cordon" 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 "cocon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cordon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #277,112 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cocon" and "cordon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocon vs croco". 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 #277,112 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.