Which to use
“colis” and “colons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,228
- “colis” frequency rank
- #8,675
- “colons” frequency rank
- 13903
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | colis | colons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caisse, ballot, paquet de marchandises expédiées. | Pluriel de colon. |
Where the eye mixes colis and colons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. colis runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against colons's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between colis and colons
A purely visual mix-up. colis (\kɔ.li\) and colons (\kɔ.lɔ̃\) 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 13903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
colis is recorded at frequency rank #5,228, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.li\. colons is at rank #8,675, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.lɔ̃\.
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 13903, this pair ranks #399,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of colis vs colons
Shared letters: clos. Private to "colis": i. Private to "colons": n.
"colis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "colons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "colis" and "colons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "colis" or "colons" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "colis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "colons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "colis" and "colons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colons 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 #399,026 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.