Which to use
“filon” and “frelon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,975
- “filon” frequency rank
- #39,307
- “frelon” frequency rank
- 64282
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filon | frelon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gisement étendu d’une matière, de forme allongée, permettant son identification. | Sorte de grosse guêpe, de nom scientifique Vespa crabro. |
Where the eye mixes filon and frelon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. filon runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against frelon's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: filon vs frelon
A purely visual mix-up. filon (\fi.lɔ̃\) and frelon (\fʁə.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 64282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filon is recorded at frequency rank #24,975, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.lɔ̃\. frelon is at rank #39,307, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁə.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 64282, this pair ranks #77,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of filon vs frelon
Shared letters: flno. Private to "filon": i. Private to "frelon": er.
"filon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "frelon" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "filon" and "frelon" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "filon" vs "frelon" - which ranks higher?
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 "filon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frelon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filon" and "frelon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frelon vs frelons". 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 #77,808 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.