Which to use
“dello” is an article and “dillon” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,458
- “dello” frequency rank
- #25,278
- “dillon” frequency rank
- 60736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dello | dillon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction de di (« de ») et lo (« le »), du. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’impératif de diellat. |
Where the eye mixes dello and dillon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dello and dillon
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dello is \ˈdel.lo\ while dillon is /ˈdilːon/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dello is recorded at frequency rank #35,458, classified as anarticle, pronounced \ˈdel.lo\. dillon is at rank #25,278, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdilːon/.
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 60736, this pair ranks #96,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dello vs dillon
Shared letters: dlo. Private to "dello": e. Private to "dillon": in.
"dello" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "dillon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dello" for "dillon" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dello" or "dillon"?
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 "dello" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dillon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #96,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dello" and "dillon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degli vs dello". 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 #96,037 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.