Which to use
“condom” and “cordon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,241
- “condom” frequency rank
- #9,457
- “cordon” frequency rank
- 46698
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | condom | cordon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Préservatif. | Petite corde, par exemple utilisée pour tirer un mécanisme, une sonnette, … → voir cordon de tirage et tirer le cordon |
Where the eye mixes condom and cordon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses condom with cordon
A purely visual mix-up. condom (\kɔ̃.dɔ̃\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
condom is recorded at frequency rank #37,241, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.dɔ̃\. 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 46698, this pair ranks #192,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of condom vs cordon
Shared letters: cdno. Private to "condom": m. Private to "cordon": r.
"condom" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cordon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "condom" for "cordon" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "condom" or "cordon" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "condom" and "cordon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "condom" 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 #192,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "condom" and "cordon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs condom". 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 #192,849 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.