Which to use
“griffe” and “griffon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,722
- “griffe” frequency rank
- #35,975
- “griffon” frequency rank
- 53697
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | griffe | griffon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ongle crochu, pointu et mobile de certains animaux, tels que le tigre, le lion, le chat, etc., ou d’un oiseau de proie, comme l’épervier, le faucon, etc. | Animal fabuleux, moitié aigle et moitié lion. |
Where the eye mixes griffe and griffon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. griffe runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against griffon's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between griffe and griffon
A purely visual mix-up. griffe (\ɡʁif\) and griffon (\ɡʁi.fɔ̃\) 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 53697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
griffe is recorded at frequency rank #17,722, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁif\. griffon is at rank #35,975, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁi.fɔ̃\.
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 53697, this pair ranks #139,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of griffe vs griffon
Shared letters: fgir. Private to "griffe": e. Private to "griffon": no.
"griffe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "griffon" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "griffe" for "griffon" ever safe?
Frequency check: "griffe" vs "griffon" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "griffe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "griffon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "griffe" and "griffon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "greffon vs griffon". 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 #139,008 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.