gommevsgoneConfusable pair

Which to use

“gomme” and “gone” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,802
“gomme” frequency rank
#26,383
“gone” frequency rank
40185
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gomme gone
Definition Exsudat végétal riche en polysaccharides, sécrété naturellement ou à la suite d’une blessure par certains arbres, notamment des légumineuses, et utilisé comme épaississant, émulsifiant ou liant dans des préparations alimentaires, pharmaceutiques ou industrielles. Enfant, gosse.

Where the eye mixes gomme and gone

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
gomme
4 ch
gone

Visual trap between gomme and gone

A purely visual mix-up. gomme (\ɡɔm\) and gone (\ɡɔn\) 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 40185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gomme is recorded at frequency rank #13,802, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔm\. gone is at rank #26,383, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔn\.

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 40185, this pair ranks #242,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gomme vs gone

Shared letters: ego. Private to "gomme": m. Private to "gone": n.

"gomme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "gone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gommeggomme · gmome · gome · gomem · ogmme
  • goneggone · gnoe · goen · gonne · ogne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gomme" for "gone" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɔm\ versus \ɡɔn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gomme" or "gone"?
"gomme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,802 in our French list, against #26,383 for "gone". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "gomme" and "gone" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gomme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gomme" and "gone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gone". 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 #242,390 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list