Which to use
“dolmen” and “doyen” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,113
- “dolmen” frequency rank
- #9,154
- “doyen” frequency rank
- 55267
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dolmen | doyen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sépulture mégalithique préhistorique constituée d’une ou plusieurs grosses dalles horizontales posées sur des pierres verticales. | Celui qui est le plus ancien suivant l’ordre de réception dans un corps, dans une compagnie. |
Where the eye mixes dolmen and doyen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dolmen runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against doyen's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dolmen with doyen
A purely visual mix-up. dolmen (\dɔl.mɛn\) and doyen (\dwa.jɛ̃\) 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 55267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dolmen is recorded at frequency rank #46,113, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔl.mɛn\. doyen is at rank #9,154, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dwa.jɛ̃\.
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 55267, this pair ranks #128,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dolmen vs doyen
Shared letters: deno. Private to "dolmen": lm. Private to "doyen": y.
"dolmen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "doyen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dolmen" and "doyen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dolmen" or "doyen" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dolmen" and "doyen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dolmen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doyen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #128,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dolmen" and "doyen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dolmen vs dômes". 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 #128,550 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.