Which to use
“colonie” and “colons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,229
- “colonie” frequency rank
- #8,675
- “colons” frequency rank
- 13904
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | colonie | colons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Population installée loin de son lieu d’origine pour y prospérer, et qui maintient des liens privilégiés avec la métropole. | Pluriel de colon. |
Where the eye mixes colonie and colons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. colonie runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against colons's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between colonie and colons
A purely visual mix-up. colonie (\kɔ.lɔ.ni\) 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 13904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
colonie is recorded at frequency rank #5,229, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.lɔ.ni\. 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 13904, this pair ranks #399,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of colonie vs colons
Shared letters: clno. Private to "colonie": ei. Private to "colons": s.
"colonie" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "colons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "colonie" for "colons" ever safe?
Which is more common, "colonie" or "colons"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "colonie" 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 #399,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "colonie" 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 #399,024 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.